A man who raped and murdered an Irish backpacker in Goa eight years ago has been jailed for life.
Danielle McLaughlin’s body was found on a beach popular with holidaymakers in Goa in March 2017.
The 28-year-old County Donegal woman had been raped and strangled, a post-mortem examination found.
Vikat Bhagat, 31, was found guilty at a court in India on Friday.
At the time, Ms McLaughlin had travelled to the southern Indian state with a female Australian friend and was staying in a beach hut.
The pair had been celebrating Holi – a Hindu festival – in a nearby village. A day later, a farmer found her body in a remote location in Canacona.
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Speaking after the guilty verdict last week, Ms McLaughlin’s mother and a sister said justice had “finally been achieved”.
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“There was no other suspect or gang involved in Danielle’s death and (Vikat) Bhagat was solely responsible for cruelly ending her beautiful life,” her mother Andrea Brannigan and sister Joleen McLaughlin Brannigan said.
“We have endured what has been effectively an eight-year murder trial with many delays and problems, right until the end, all taking place thousands of miles away from Danielle’s home.”
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Ireland’s deputy premier, Simon Harris, also paid tribute to her mother for what he called her “determination and resilience” and said he hoped the verdict “represents some closure for the family”.
