Man found guilty of rape and murder

A man has been found guilty of the rape and murder of an Irish woman backpacking in India.

Danielle McLaughlin, 28, from County Donegal, was found dead in a field in the western state of Goa in March 2017.

Vikat Bhagat was found guilty at the District and Sessions Court in south Goa, India, on Friday.

A post-mortem examination found brain damage and strangulation as the cause of death.

Rape victims cannot usually be named under Indian law. Their identities are often hidden in a bid to protect them from being shunned in society.

In this case, Danielle McLaughlin’s family have spoken to the media to raise awareness of her case.

Ms McLaughlin, who grew up in Buncrana, had travelled to India in February 2017.

She was there for two weeks before her life was ended.

The Liverpool John Moores University student had been staying in a beach hut with an Australian friend.

The pair had been celebrating Holi, a Hindu festival, in a nearby village.

She left the village at night and her body was found the next day by a local farmer in an isolated spot.

Ms McLaughlin, who had dual Irish and British citizenship, travelled to India using a British passport.

In 2018, the then Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Leo Varadkar met and apologised to her family after a misunderstanding about her citizenship.

Her body was brought home to Donegal with the help of the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust.

She is buried in her hometown of Buncrana in the Republic of Ireland.