Danielle McLaughlin's murderer to appeal double life sentence

Irish woman Danielle McLaughlin was celebrating the Hindu Holi festival in Goa on March 2017 when she was raped and murdered by Vikat Bhagat. 

The man who murdered Irish backpacker Danielle McLaughlin has lodged an application to appeal his sentence.

Vikat Bhagat, aged 31, received two life sentences in February for the rape and murder of the 28-year-old Donegal woman.

Danielle’s mother, Andrea Brannigan, said that news of the appeal was not welcome.

“I was upset, but you just have to get on with it,” said Ms Brannigan. “The appeal might not be granted.”

An appeal can take some three to five years, she said.

Danielle had volunteered in an Indian orphanage and fell in love with the country and its people.

She had returned to study yoga just two weeks before her death.

She was in Goa celebrating the Hindu Holi festival — the festival of colours, which symbolises the triumph of good over evil, light over dark — with friends on March 13, 2017.

31-year-old Vikat Bhagat received two life sentences in February for the rape and murder of 28-year-old Donegal woman Danielle McLaughlin. Picture: Facebook

Her body was found in a field in southern Goa on March 14.

An autopsy showed the former Liverpool John Moores University student suffered cerebral damage and constriction of the neck, causing her death.

Goa local Bhagat received two life sentences — one for murder with a second life sentence for rape — and a further two years for the destruction of evidence at the District and Sessions Court in South Goa on February 17.

The sentences are to run concurrently, and Bhagat can apply for release after 14 years in prison. He has already spent seven years in prison. One of Bhagat’s sentences includes “rigorous labour”.

He appealed before the Bombay High Court earlier this month challenging his conviction and life sentence.

“I’m hoping life means life now and not just a few years,” Ms Brannigan previously told the Irish Examiner. 

Ms Brannigan is also hoping that an inquest can be held into Danielle’s death in Donegal.