Scarlett's Indian boyfriend: Murdered girl had a heavy drink problem - and her mother knew all about it

13 April 2012

Since the battered, semi-naked body of British teenager Scarlett Keeling was found on a Goan beach, clouds of blame and suspicion have been cast over those who should have been looking after her.

Scarlett's mother, Fiona MacKeown, has accused the Indian authorities of a cover-up – a transparent ruse, critics say, to deflect attention from her own neglect in abandoning her 15-year-old daughter in a foreign country, with an older boyfriend, in an atmosphere rife with drink, drugs and sex.

Drugs were found in Scarlett's body and she was raped before she died.

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'Scapegoat': Julio Lobo feels Fiona MacKeown is blaming him over the death of his girlfriend

Yesterday, pathologists said that she was killed when her head was forcibly held under water for up to five to ten minutes.

As accusations fly into who should have been looking after the teenager, one man has remained silent – until now.

Julio Lobo, the Indian boyfriend who Scarlett's family trusted to look after her, has decided to give his side of the story in an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday.

In a stinging attack on mother-of-nine Mrs Mac- Keown, the 25-year-old Indian claims Scarlett had a heavy drink habit of which her mother was well aware and that – despite her claims to the contrary – Mrs Mac- Keown left her daughter in his care for several weeks.

Like so much of this case, his testimony comes as a sad indictment of all those involved, but as Julio comes under increasing pressure from Goan police – who he claims beat him as they interrogated him over Scarlett's death – his comments could also be seen as a self-serving attempt to deflect criticism from his own behaviour.

He fears he could be charged with unlawful sexual relations with a minor under Goa's Children's Act, and has already applied for bail in anticipation of an imminent arrest.

Speaking in his lawyer's office, Julio claimed Scarlett told him she was 19 – which he believed – and that he had "something special" with her.

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Victim: Scarlett was muderered and found on a Goan beach

He is not under suspicion of involvement with Scarlett's death – two Indian men have been charged and will appear in court again next week – but he was keen to deflect any blame for not looking after her back on to Mrs MacKeown.

"This is such a confusing time for me," he said.

"Scarlett has been murdered. I feel I did everything I could to help her but now I am being accused of failing her.

"I feel like I am being blamed by Scarlett's family for not looking after her but she did what she wanted to do.

"Mrs MacKeown should have done more to look after Scarlett. She could have done much more to protect her."

Julio said Mrs MacKeown left Scarlett in Goa with no money, and that Scarlett herself boasted that she was capable of looking after herself.

Julio also denies Mrs MacKeown's claims she was never apart from Scarlett for more than three or four days.

"She left Scarlett with me for about three weeks," he said.

"It's not true she was seeing her daughter every few days."

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Blame: Julio claims Fiona MacKeown neglected Scarlett - which she denies

He added: "Scarlett had a drinking habit. She used to drink vodka, beer and tequila, sometimes in large amounts, and her mother knew this.

"When her family was away and she was with me, she'd be drunk many nights, so drunk she was falling over.

"I guessed that she was also taking drugs though I never saw her doing that."

Julio's testimony is in direct contradiction to Mrs MacKeown's assertions that her teenage daughter was "not a drinker".

Vikram Varma, Mrs Mac- Keown's lawyer, said last night: "Scarlett would never drink more than a glass of wine or bottle of beer when she went out with the family for the evening.

"Mrs MacKeown said she would have known if her daughter was binge-drinking."

Mrs MacKeown said she thought Julio – who divided his time between Goa and working in Finland – was "a nice guy, responsible and hard-working", which is why she had no qualms about leaving her daughter in his care.

She says both her daughter and Julio had reassured her that their friendship was merely platonic, as Scarlett had a boyfriend in England and Julio had a girlfriend in Finland.

Today, Julio says of their relationship: "After all that's happened, I wouldn't want to use the word 'love' any more, but I really cared for her.

"Talking about love is out of the question now but I think we had something special together."

The couple met her soon after Scarlett and her family arrived in Goa, where Julio was working as a tour guide, towards the end of November.

Scarlett's diary – which cannot be used as evidence in any legal action against Julio – records that their first meeting was at one of Goa's full-moon beach parties, notoriously drug-fuelled affairs where revellers dance to techno and trance music into the small hours.

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Wrong address: The house where Mrs MacKeown mistakenly thought her daughter was living

Scarlett wrote that she had drunk "a lot of vodka" and taken a pill – possibly Ecstasy.

"I was pretty messed up," she recalled.

"I don't remember a lot but apparently we had sex and I can remember that much."

It was not long before Scarlett and Julio were, in his words, "hanging out together".

Sometimes he would spend time with her and her family at beachfront cafes in the resort of Anjuna.

Other times, she would accompany him to the beaches, handing out fliers to tourists and helping him take groups to visit Goa's spice plantations, on dolphin-spotting trips and elephant rides.

"What attracted me to Scarlett was that she was so warm and friendly," says Julio.

"She was fun and loved to go out to parties along the beach. She had a good voice and liked to sing along to the pop songs at the beach shacks.

"I work when I feel like it, other times I do nothing. Sometimes Scarlett and I used to just sit around talking with friends and tourists. We'd cruise around on my motorbike, just going places.

"A few times, we went fishing in the rivers around here. Scarlett liked going to the bars in the evening but I don't like drinking much. Anyway, we'd go there sometimes and play pool."

Julio says it was a shock for him to read Scarlett's diary.

"I thought she loved me," he said.

"Then I read what she wrote about how I was using her for sex. It's not true. I really felt for Scarlett and I liked her family but now I think they were all using me."

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Short-lived high: Scarlett helped Julio take groups on elephant rides

Indeed, Scarlett did write that Julio "has done so much for me and my family".

On January 22, Mrs MacKeown left Goa on a trip with her boyfriend Rob Clarke and six of her children.

Mrs MacKeown says she believed her daughter would be staying in Julio's aunt's bungalow in Siolim, a village about 15 minutes inland, and that they would not be sharing a room.

In reality,she was staying in a nearby shack where she could be alone with Julio.

In her diary, Scarlett wrote that she was having sex with Julio, but her mother claims no knowledge of this.

Julio says: "A lot of wrong things are being said by the mother. She was happy with Scarlett and me being in the same room."

Although Julio says Mrs Mac- Keown left Scarlett with him for about three weeks, he added that they once visited Mrs MacKeown when she was in Gokarna, in neighbouring Karnataka state.

"I took her down there on my motorbike and we stayed there for eight days," he said.

Mrs MacKeown's lawyer rejected any allegation that Mrs MacKeown didn't do enough to protect her daughter.

He said Mrs MacKeown provided Scarlett with living expenses, was in touch with her by mobile phone every day, and that she insisted that Scarlett visited her "every three or four days, escorted by Julio".

The last time Julio saw Scarlett alive was when he dropped her at a vegetarian restaurant in Anjuna called Bean Me Up at about 8.30pm on February 17.

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Together: Scarlett with Julio. He is not under suspicion over her death

"She was due to meet the rest of her family in Gokarna the following day and said she wanted to spend time with her friend, Ruby, whose family run the restaurant," Julio said.

Scarlett and Ruby went out, and returned to Bean Me Up at 1.30am, when they appeared under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Ruby went to bed, and Scarlett was next seen about two hours later in Lui's bar on Anjuna beach, again in "an intoxicated state", according to witnesses.

A Briton, Michael Mannion, who was at the bar, says Scarlett told him she had taken three drops of LSD, two Ecstasy pills and cocaine.

Julio added: "She said she'd call me when she was ready to be picked up.

"When I didn't hear from her, I went to look for her but I could not find her. I was worried sick. There was no sign of her.

"I went out on my bike asking people in the beach shacks. 'Later I was told a body had been found though no one knew anything more. Then I was told the body was Scarlett's.

"I couldn't believe it. I had seen her alive and in great form the evening before. I was then faced with having to make the worst call of my life.

"My courage failed me so I sent her mother a text saying there had been a terrible accident. She called me back and I had to tell her that her daughter was dead. Fiona was beside herself."

Police initially dismissed Scarlett's death as an accidental drowning, but Mrs MacKeown, from Devon, insisted it was more sinister.

A murder investigation was opened after a second post-mortem found 50 abrasions on her body.

Julio was questioned, and claims that as the pressure piled up on police for results, he was beaten.

"I was questioned for hours and hours," he claims.

"They tortured me on the back and front of my hands with flat wooden bats. They could hit you very hard and it doesn't leave any mark."

A toxicology report, published recently, revealed that Scarlett had consumed a cocktail of drugs and alcohol before her death.

Goan police say traces of cocaine and morphine were found in her body – not enough to have caused an overdose but a crucial part in the chain of events leading to her death.

"The girl was drugged, sexually assaulted and left to die in the waters," says Inspector General Kishan Kumar.

"In that condition, she was neither very conscious nor strong enough to handle herself."

Pathologists at Goa Medical College said yesterday that Scarlett died after her head was forcibly held under water.

Mrs MacKeown's lawyer said: "This confirms what I have always contended.

"She was attacked by more than one person and that she struggled desperately to defend herself."

The two suspects are due in court again this week.

Samson D'Souza is charged with rape and murder and Placido Carvalho is charged with supplying her with cocaine, Ecstasy and LSD and facilitating her murder.

But Mrs MacKeown, who plans to return to Britain this week to bury Scarlett at her smallholding near Bideford, says they are "scapegoats" and that the killers remain at large.

As for Julio, his illusions of an untroubled life in Goa have been shattered.

"Life seemed good before," he says.

"But now I don't know what is going to happen."

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