Police in India have charged a man with murder two months after the savage killing of British backpacker Sarah Groves.
Dutch tourist Richard De Wit was arrested after 24-year-old Sarah was found stabbed to death on a houseboat in Kashmir.
She had suffered 45 knife wounds, most on her fingers, hands and arms, indicating she had fought ferociously for her life.
De Wit, 43, was formally charged on Monday and is due to appear in court in Srinagar on June 15 when he is expected to enter a plea.
Indian police believe Sarah met her alleged killer during her travels in Goa and began a relationship with him over Christmas.
She was attacked in her room on a houseboat hotel on Srinagar’s picturesque Lake Dal in the early hours of April 5.
Police said De Wit swam to shore and hailed a taxi but was stopped 45 miles away and arrested.
He is said to have confessed to killing her after smoking cannabis, triggering delusions that she was a Dutch spy.
Detectives are also probing claims free spirit Sarah was conned out of money before her death.
De Wit is currently being held in the region’s central jail having received treatment in a government-run psychiatric hospital.
Sarah, a former pupil at the Catholic St Mary’s boarding school in Ascot and a friend of Princess Beatrice, was born in Manchester but later moved to Guernsey with her family.
She had worked as a fitness instructor at a Guernsey hotel before leaving the island to travel in Asia.
