The mother of a 15-year-old girl found dead in Goa last month accused local police yesterday of covering up her rape and murder, adding to fears about the safety of women tourists in India.

When Scarlett Keeling’s half-naked body was found on Anjuna Beach, a favourite hippy and backpacker haunt in the south Indian state, on February 18, the local police force declared that she had drowned accidentally.

But the report of a post mortem examination seen by The Times shows that she had several bruises and abrasions to her head, neck, arms and legs, which her family believe were the result of a sexual assault.

Her shorts and underpants had been removed and her bra-top pushed up around her neck, according to local people who found her body. Goa’s chief pathologist said that she had recently had sexual intercourse, although it is not known if it was forced.

Fiona MacKeown, the girl’s mother, is now accusing police of deliberately ignoring that and other evidence to avoid opening a rape and murder case.

Mrs MacKeown said that she left her daughter in Goa while she travelled to the neighbouring state of Karnataka early last month.

“Without doubt they are trying to cover things up,” Mrs MacKeown, who is from Devon, told The Times. “I have viewed my daughter’s body. The police said there were no abrasions and her body is covered in them. They say she drowned in shallow water, but she was a strong swimmer.” Police have publicly pledged to consider Mrs MacKeown’s request for a second post mortem examination and a rape and murder investigation, but in private they tell journalists she drowned.

The case raises fresh concerns about the safety of foreign women in India after a string of sexual assaults, including several on British women, in the past few months. Many of them have been in Goa, a former Portuguese enclave which attracted 2.2 million tourists last year.

Indian authorities held a meeting of regional tourist officials to discuss how to improve security for women visitors. But the problem, according to victims, is the local authorities’ reluctance to pursue rape investigations.

Many rapists are not prosecuted because their victims do not report the attacks, or leave the country, and others are let off because of corruption in the police and judiciary.

Mrs MacKeown arrived in Goa on November 22 with her boyfriend and eight of her nine children, including Scarlett, who attended the Small School, an alternative secondary school in Bideford, Devon. Within three weeks, Scarlett had struck up a friendship with Julio, a 25-year-old local tour guide, according to Dakini Running Bear, 33, a family friend and yoga teacher from California.

When Mrs MacKeown and her family went to Karnataka, Scarlett insisted on staying with Julio, Mrs Running Bear said. On the night she died, Scarlett and a Spanish girl called Ruby were seen entering a café called Bean Me Up at about 1am. Scarlett left alone, and was later seen entering a beachside café called Loui’s. Vikram Varma, Mrs MacKeown’s lawyer, said: “Circumstantial evidence suggests it was rape. We’ll have to wait for the forensics to confirm that, but the physical evidence clearly shows that she was assaulted.” He said that a rape case should be opened even if the sex was consensual, because Scarlett was a minor.

Travelling victims Anjuna Beach

— Adrian Duggan was found guilty in 2005 of killing his girlfriend on Christmas Day in 2003 while on holiday in Goa. Duggan maintains that the couple were attacked by an intruder

— Mike Blakey, a 23-year-old charity worker, was found battered to death in Dharamsala, northern India, on November 29, 2006. His body was found under a pile of rocks

— Stephen Bennett was beaten to death by a gang of men and found hanging from a mango tree in Roha after travelling from Goa in December 2006

— Denise Higgins, a 52-year-old British citizen of Indian descent, was found in a pool of blood with a kitchen knife protruding from her neck in April 2007. She was building a house in Goa and planned to settle there. The suspect is a local man whom she had befriended

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