Waiter jailed for British widow’s murder in Goa, India

An Indian waiter has been jailed for life for murdering a retired British widow in south Goa. On Tuesday Judge PV Sawaikar found Anand Kambli guilty of killing Denise Higgins in April 2007. Ms Higgins, 52, who was originally from Oxfordshire, had lived in Chippenham before moving to India for “a new life in the sun”.

Anand Kambli was found guilty of murdering Denise Higgins

The former civil servant was discovered with multiple stab wounds and with her throat cut. A widowed former domestic violence counsellor, Ms Higgins was born in the north-east Indian city of Kolkata, and had met beach bar waiter Kambli through a friend who helped her find accommodation after she moved to the former Portuguese colony six months earlier.

She was said to have loaned Kambli money to set up a beachside restaurant, and had given him 50,000 rupees (1,100 US dollars or £736), days before the attack. Her body was found lying in a pool of blood by an auto-rickshaw driver who was due to take her shopping the following morning.