Michaela trial: Call for magistrate to quit case

A DEFENCE lawyer for one of the men accused of murdering Michaela Harte has asked for the magistrate in the case to stand down.

Preliminary court proceedings in the trial of the men accused of her murder opened in Mauritius yesterday.

The daughter of Tyrone Gaelic football manager Mickey Harte, Michaela was murdered in her honeymoon suite in the Legends resort on January 10, just 12 days after marrying Down footballer John McAreavey.

The magistrate is expected to give a decision on the request today.

Much of yesterday’s hearing involved legal arguments over the provision of certain material relating to the case.

The defence expressed unhappiness that it had not received any of the CCTV footage police reportedly seized from the hotel where Michaela was murdered. It also questioned why it had not received any of the medical reports or the DNA evidence gathered.

The prosecution replied by saying that there was no CCTV available that was pertinent to the case.

Two men appeared at a pre-trial hearing yesterday. Expected to last several days, it will determine which witnesses will be called to testify and what evidence is admissible to the full trial later this summer.

Neither the Harte and McAreavey families are expected in court for this week’s proceedings. Should the case go to full trial, John McAreavey is expected to give evidence.

Michaela, a 27-year-old schoolteacher and former Rose of Tralee contestant, is believed to have been strangled after catching two hotel workers rifling through her belongings.

Her husband found her body in the bath when he went looking for her after she failed to return to the dining room where they had been having lunch.

Initially, four hotel workers were charged in connection with her death but charges against one were dropped after he agreed to give evidence. Cleaner Raj Theekoy, aged 31, is now a key prosecution witness and it is believed he has made statements describing how he heard screams coming from Michaela’s room and met two of the accused in an agitated state as they emerged from it.

Avinash Treebhoowoon, aged 29, and Sandip Moneea, aged 41, have been charged with Michaela’s murder, while a third employee, Dassen Narainen, aged 26, is charged with conspiracy to commit theft after allegedly supplying the other two with a master key for the room.