THE mother of teenager Scarlett Keeling was yesterday told she could face jail after admitting benefit fraud – on the day two men went on trial in India for her daughter's manslaughter.

Fiona MacKeown, 44, pleaded guilty to falsely claiming £19,000 in income support between February 2005 and March 2008. The case was adjourned to a date to be fixed for sentencing at Exeter Crown Court.

MacKeown, of West Lodge, near Meddon, North Devon, was consequently unable to get to Goa for the trial of the two men charged with killing her 15-year-old daughter. Scarlett, above, was found dead on a beach in Goa in February 2008. She had been drugged, raped and attacked while on holiday.

Samson D'Souza, 30, and Placido Carvalho, 42, were in court in Panaji to face charges of culpable homicide, sexual assault, outraging modesty and destroying evidence. Both are on bail. But the trial was adjourned until April 5 when examination of witnesses will begin.

MacKeown, who fought a long campaign for a full investigation into her daughter's death, is expected to give evidence. Before yesterday's hearing in Exeter, she labelled the hearing in India a show trial.

She said: "It's all for show. It's to show they're doing something about it. I don't think they'll ever convict the two of them."

Asked if the right men were in the dock in India, she replied: "The two men were doing something.

"They were plying Scarlett with drugs and they probably wanted to have sex with her.

"There's a possibility one of them murdered her. There's a chance these guys did it. But at the same time, I don't want anyone innocent done for her murder."

MacKeown said the delay in bringing the case to trial was frustrating and not enough support had been offered to her by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

She said she would have liked to have been in India for the start of the trial, but she had to deal with her own prosecution hearing.

She went on: "The only justice I will get is if the corrupt ministers and police are slowly exposed through these proceedings. The tourist trade in India has dropped and, hopefully, that's down to the corruption people have seen there.

"But I don't think I'll ever have justice through the courts."

MacKeown fought back tears when she said she still thought about Scarlett "every day".

"I miss her at the most unexpected moments," she said.

The court in Panaji was told the trial of D'Souza and Carvalho could go on until the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Exeter Crown Court was told that MacKeown, who appeared in court in a black cardigan and blue jeans, was originally accused of falsely claiming more than £50,000 income support.

But she pleaded guilty to one count of obtaining money transfers by deception on the basis that she falsely claimed £19,000 worth of income support.

MacKeown filed the claim on October 15, 2005, the court was told. Defending, David Sapiecha asked for the case to be adjourned to a date to be fixed as MacKeown would have to attend the trial of her daughter's alleged killers in India.

Judge Graham Cottle told MacKeown she faced a possible custodial sentence, and adjourned the case to a date to be fixed after April 16.

MacKeown left her daughter in Goa while she went on a trip to the neighbouring state of Karnataka, and returned to find out Scarlett had been killed.

Local police said the teenager had drowned accidentally, but under pressure from her mother, a second post-mortem examination was carried out which showed she had been violently attacked.

Later tests revealed that Scarlett had Ecstasy, cocaine and LSD in her system on the night she died, and suggested she was killed by having her face held down in water.

D'Souza and Carvalho were arrested in March 2008, the month after she died, along with a third man questioned over supplying drugs.

When Scarlett's body was flown back to England, her mother discovered her stomach, kidneys and uterus were missing.