Indian police 'fed drugs to Scarlett Keeling's body to cover up her murder'

A Goa medical college forensics report has shown that the 15-year-old was killed not by a cocktail of drugs but when her head was forcibly held under water for up to 10 minutes, an Indian news website claimed today.

The pathologist in the case has now decided the cocktail of drugs in her system was not responsible for her death, according to CNN-IBN. The website claimed the report confirmed that the teen had been murdered.

The news website also claimed that the drugs were not in the teenager's system at all before she was killed - leading to the dark accusation by Mrs MacKeown on Sky News that Goan police actually added drugs to Scarlett's body after she died to try to cover up the crime.

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Scarlett Keeling was found murdered on February 18

"I want the police brought to justice," Ms MacKeown told Sky. "They have interfered with the evidence - this is proof.

Scarlett's mother Fiona MacKeown expressed horror that her daughter had clearly been conscious and struggling for her life when she was killed.

But she also welcomed the news as further evidence that the police had attempted to cover up the truth about her daughter's death.

She said: "It has been my gut instinct all along. She had marks on her body that proved she struggled.

When asked how she felt, she added: "A weird sense of relief that I was right all along but horrified that my daughter died a horrible death and fought until the end."

She said she had not been informed of the new finding by the authorities and had only seen the reports.

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But she added that she would use the new information as another argument for a High Court inquiry into how the case was handled in Goa.

She and her laywer Vikram Varma are calling for the CBI, a federal body, to lead an investigation in order to hold the local police to account.

The case has already proved highly embarrassing for the police, who had initially said the 15-year-old drowned in the sea while high on drugs.

Her murder was only revealed after her mother insisted on a second post mortem which indicated she had been raped and murdered.

The tests showed the 15-year-old also had cocaine, morphine and alcohol in her system.

Her bruised and partially clothed body was found on February 18 on Anjuna beach in Goa, southern India.

She had been on holiday with her mother, her mother's boyfriend and her six siblings.

The family, from Devon, was travelling in India when she died, after her mother let her stay behind with a boyfriend.

Goa Police Chief Kishen Kumar said: "Now the narcotic drugs and alcohol form a part of the chain of events that included rape and drowning of a girl who could not defend herself."

Two men have appeared in court on charges connected to her death.

They were allegedly seen drinking with Scarlett at a bar on the night she died.

The case has embarrassed police, who initially said Scarlett drowned.

Pressure from her mother forced a second postmortem examination that indicated she had been raped and murdered.