Sarah Groves' family still waiting for closure ten years on

Miss Groves was 24 when she left the island to go travelling at the end of 2012.

She was killed while staying on a houseboat in the Srinagar region.

Less than three hours after her death, a Dutchman, Richard de Wit, was arrested. He has been in custody in Srinagar ever since.

In the years that followed, there were hundreds of court hearings but progress was frustratingly slow.

It has been more than a year since there was any activity in the courtroom and Mr de Wit has now been ruled mentally unfit to stand trial.

‘If you read the transcripts of the court hearings up to that point, or my notes about it, you will have picked up many, many, many times that the mental state and mental health of Richard de Wit was potentially a reason for the case to collapse,’ said Miss Groves’ father, Vic.

The Groves family was told of an impending announcement from the court in January 2022. This came from what they believed to be a reliable source, but nothing happened.

Since then, Mr Groves said they had received similar suggestions weekly.

‘The last year’s been bad in that sense, because we wake up hoping that that is the day,’ he said.

‘But there’s some reason to believe that we are very much at the apex now.’

Sarah’s mother, Kate, said: ‘We both handle it very differently. To say I’ve been crestfallen would be an understatement.’

Every day has seen phone calls and correspondence with their Indian contact.

The couple said that neither of them ever thought they would be approaching the 10th anniversary of Sarah’s death with the court case still unresolved.

‘It’s a good job I didn’t know,’ said Mrs Groves.

‘That’s the lost 10 years, effectively, of our lives where we haven’t been able to draw the line, even a pencil line if you like,’ said her husband.

The couple have been restricted in what they have been able to say over the past year by what Mr Groves described as the Indian equivalent of the Official Secrets Act.

This has had a major impact on their life and they have hardly socialised, with Mrs Groves saying they had retracted into themselves.

‘We haven’t been able to reach a level of where we can even talk about it and that’s one of the big problems that we’ve got,’ said Mr Groves.

‘We’re bottling stuff up that we can’t talk about at the moment and we want to be able to talk about it. That will definitely ease the pressure on us.

‘And that’s why we’re very, very keen for a public announcement to be made, because then the lid comes off in terms of the restrictions that are on us.’

Mrs Groves said it would be good to be able to be open about things. ‘Harbouring things and not talking about things that trouble you – it’s not good for your headspace.’

Man accused of Sarah’s murder still in custody

SARAH GROVES’ body was found on a houseboat in Kashmir on 6 April 2013. She had been stabbed more than 40 times.

Dutch national Richard de Wit was arrested soon afterwards and, although initially claiming responsibility, he entered a not guilty plea when he appeared in court a few months’ later.

He has been kept in custody in an Indian prison ever since.

The trial’s progress was frequently frustrated by many factors, including witnesses failing to appear when called, civil unrest in the province, and evidence being destroyed in floods.

Mr de Wit’s mental fitness to stand was questioned. Despite this, and his dismissing his lawyers more than once, the trial continued until a decision was made that he was unfit.

Four judges have heard the case over the years across more than 200 court sittings.

The Dutchman sacked his lawyers on more than a couple of occasions and at one point tried to represent himself, which predictably did not work well.

Progress of the trial was also complicated by it initially starting under Kashmiri law, but then coming under Indian law after political changes in August 2019.

As the hearings have dragged on, Mr and Mrs Groves have appealed to the UK, Dutch and Indian governments to try to expedite matters, as well as aiming to keep islanders informed of its progress ­– or lack of.

They have also been behind the setting up of a foundation in their daughter’s name which has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds, funds which have been used to support children in the Bailiwick and all over the world.

Speaking on the 10th anniversary of their daughter’s death, the Groves family said there had not been much activity from the foundation in the last year or so, but this is something they intend to rectify when they can, which depends on news they are waiting for from India.