- Parents of Guernsey woman stabbed to death in India continue to fight for justice
- Two years after her death, trial is still plagued by delays and setbacks
- Parents said they were appalled by the lack of progress made by the police in India
THE parents of a Guernsey woman who was stabbed to death in India two years ago have said that they will continue to fight for justice for their daughter.
Sarah Groves, who was aged 24, was killed on a houseboat in Kashmir where she was staying with her boyfriend and his family.
- Sarah Groves was the daughter of businessman Vic Groves ?
- She attended St Marys College, a boarding school in the UK, before she went to university to study art and design ?
- Sarah had worked at the Old Government House gym as a fitness instructor, as well as at Clydesdale Bank and The Townhouse pub in St Peter Port ?
- Having completed her bronze, silver and gold Duke of Edinburgh awards, she took on the challenge of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in 2012, raising more than £3,000 for Childreach International
Dutch tourist Richard de Wit, who had spent three days staying with the family, was arrested shortly after Miss Groves’s body was found on board the boat.
Since then, the trial has been plagued with setbacks, with witnesses failing to turn up in court and questions being raised about evidence.
Miss Groves’s parents said that they were ‘appalled’ by the lack of progress made by the police in India and believed that the crime scene had been tampered with and that the knife allegedly used to kill their daughter had been moved.
Her mother, Kate Groves, said: ‘I am broken and will never be the same person again.
‘Part of me thinks all of this is tactics in the hope we will just go away, but that just makes me more tenacious.
‘I will not go away, not until my last breath.’
This week the court convened for the 51st time in Kashmir for the trial of de Wit. Miss Groves’s father, Vic Groves, said that the large gaps between hearing dates had been the most ‘frustrating’ aspect for him.
‘There is no way India is going to be a world power as long as it conducts its internal affairs like this,’ he said.
‘It doesn’t have the processes and procedures in place that are compatible with 21st-century global standards.’
The family have been told that once the matter was concluded in court, the case would move to the High Court in Srinagar for review and to hear any appeals and a verdict was ‘unlikely’ before August next year.
Matters would also be sent to the Supreme Court in Delhi for final ratification and the overall process could take seven years.
In 2013, Sarah Groves’ brother launched an online campaign to ensure that the police authorities investigate her death fully.
In a blog which went viral after being shared around social networking sites, Tom Groves also hit out at the national media for being intrusive and reporting conflicting stories.
He told readers that tabloid reporters had turned up at his house on Saturday, with one newspaper – The Sun – pressurising him to identify pictures of his sister.
Mr Groves said that the Guernsey police had been very supportive.
In the blog, which was shared by thousands online on Facebook and retweeted on Twitter with the hashtag #JusticeFor Sarah, he also highlighted how different reports had conflicting events.
He said in a blog after the post: ‘I have tweeted @number10gov, @foreignoffice and @rupertmurdoch about this, but I hope that you will join me in sending a message to these people that, firstly, this must be fully investigated and, secondly, this is not the appropriate time for government spin.’
You can read the full blog here
- In May 2014 a group of Guernsey cyclists carried out a 600-mile cycle ride to Paris in memory of Sarah Groves
- The Tour de Sez group was made up of 50 cyclists and an eight-man support team, who included Sarahs father, Vic Groves.
- The group collectively raised more than £100,000 for the Sarah Groves Foundation.
