The family of Danielle McLaughlin have said they can finally begin to grieve her death after a man has been found guilty of her rape and murder.

Local 31-year-old man Vikat Bhagat was found guilty today at the District and Sessions Court in South Goa, India, eight years after her killing.

He is yet to be sentenced.

On March 14th, 2017, a farmer found Ms McLaughlin’s body in a field in a remote area near Canacona, Goa.

She had been backpacking there for two weeks when she was raped and murdered

Danielle’s mother Andrea Brannigan told The Hard Shoulder that “life’s kind of been a standstill waiting on this to be over”.

“It’s been really hard because this is my first time ever coming to India or even seeing it and it’s been hard,” she said.

Danielle’s sister Jolene McLaughlin Brannigan said the past eight years have been “emotionally exhausting”.

“She’s just missed so much of our lives, we’re not the same people we were,” she said.

“I was only 17 when she passed away and everything has changed since then.

“She never got to become a mother, she never got to see my child, she’s just missed so much and we feel like if she was here, things would be so different.

“We never got to see the person she could become.”

Danielle McLaughlin. File photo

Ms Brannigan said her family's lives have been dominated by the court case.

“We haven’t even had time to really think about what he put her through and everything to do with that,” she said.

“It’s so hard to even think about the grieving process when all we want to do is be strong for Danielle and fight her battles for her, that she would get the justice that we got today for her.”

Ms McLaughlin Brannigan said her family can now “think of Danielle as a person and not just this whole court case”.

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Main image: Danielle McLaughlin. File photo