THE family of a Scots mum who was brutally murdered on the island of Mauritius in front of her 10-year-old autistic son last July say they have been “fobbed off” by the authorities.

Janice Farman was beaten and smothered to death in her bed during a robbery at her home in the Albion area. Her adopted son Gavin was tied up during the attack in the early hours of July 7 last year.

Farman, 47, who was from Clydebank, moved to Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean, in 2004 and was managing director of IT company PECS Data Services.

Ravish Rao Fakhoo and Kamlesh Mansingh, both 25, and Anish Soneea, 18, were arrested in connection with the murder and remain in custody a year on.

A family member close to the investigation, who asked not to be named, said: “Everybody’s getting fobbed off. We would like to see those three b*****ds strung up, however we think it’s wrong they are in custody all this time without a trial.”

The three men were arrested days after Farman’s death and were pictured at the crime scene by police investigating the murder. But Farman’s family have claimed the trial has been delayed because prosecutors are waiting on vital evidence.

In Scotland the Procurator Fiscal is responsible for prosecuting crimes and would ordinarily receive a report from police within weeks, but officers in Mauritius have yet to send a report, according to a source close to Farman’s father, who is a retired police officer.

“It’s not gone as far as the Mauritius equivalent of the Procurator Fiscal,” said the source. “We’re told they’re waiting on evidence of telephone conversations between the three accused. Over here that would be done in a week.”

The source added: “The authorities in Mauritius don’t give a s**t about us, basically. They have not been in touch with us at all. All they’re interested in over there is the tourist industry.”

Farman’s father, Alexander, and mother, Doreen, who live in Erskine, learned of their daughter’s death on social media and could not be at her funeral due to ill health.

A family member, who asked not to be named, revealed Farman’s father was diagnosed with cancer on the day his daughter was murdered.

They said: “It’s been a bad, bad year for them. He has got the all clear now. But it was a bad, bad time. Very stressful.”

The family is keeping in close contact with the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which is liaising with the authorities in Mauritius.

A spokesman said: “We continue to assist the family of Janice Farman following her tragic death in Mauritius and have raised our interest in her case with the Mauritian authorities at a senior level.”

The Sunday Herald contacted Acting President Paramasivum Pillay Vyapoory, the Attorney General, several government departments and the local police force, but no one responded.

Vyapoory replaced President Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, who stepped down in March amid an expenses scandal.

Gurib-Fakim allegedly used a credit card provided to her by charity Planet Earth Institute to buy jewellery and clothing worth £20,000 while abroad representing PEI as an unpaid director.

Gurib-Fakim's office said she “had an identical credit card from the same bank [and] inadvertently used the card from the PEI for expenses not linked to her mission”. She later paid back the money.

She spoke to the Sunday Herald after the death of Farman last year, when she was still president of Mauritius.

She said the “culprits” who murdered Farman “would soon be arrested”. The then president also paid tribute to Farman, saying: “As a mother, my heart goes out to her family and 10-year-old son as nothing will ever replace the kind attention and love that only a mother brings…nothing can ever justify such callous brutality that takes away the lives of innocent people. May she rest in peace.”

'MY MUM'S MOUTH IS COVERED IN BLOOD AND SHE'S NOT BREATHING'

Police discovered Janice Farman’s battered body in her bed after they were called to her home in Albion around 1am on Friday July 7.

Her traumatised son, who was tied up during the robbery, told one of his mother’s colleagues that he saw Farman’s lifeless body, which was covered in blood.

Police later said Farman had been beaten and smothered with a cushion in her bed after bravely trying to fight off intruders.

They fled with jewellery, cash and Farman’s car, a Nissan Tiida, which was later found abandoned by the side of the road.

After the attack Farman’s autistic 10-year-old son Gavin, who was adopted when he was two months old, called one of her colleagues and sobbed: “My mum’s mouth is covered in blood and she is not breathing.”

The child was taken into care by the island’s child development unit. It is understood Farman’s elderly parents have been able to speak with the boy on the phone.

In the days after the murder Farman’s former husband, Jean-Baptiste Moutou, revealed she was planning to return to Scotland with her son.

He said she was robbed two weeks before she was killed and, in a phone conversation with Moutou days before she died she said she wanted to leave Mauritius.

Moutou said: “I talked to her on the phone…she wanted to leave Mauritius. She wanted to return to Scotland.”

Farman’s funeral was held at the St Augustin Church in Petite Rivière Noire 20 days after she was killed.

Her parents Doreen and Alexander Kerrigan, from Erskine in Renfrewshire, who were not at the funeral, said their daughter's death had left a “huge void” in their lives.