Police ‘merged statements to create confession’

Police fabricated a confession made by one of the two hotel workers accused of murdering Michaela McAreavey in Mauritius and then forced him to sign it, his trial was told.

The officer who led the investigation faced claims he meshed a non-incriminating statement made by Avinash Treebhoowon with claims of a suspect-turned-witness before further embellishing the false account.

Chief inspector Luciano Gerard insisted the hotel cleaner had voluntarily signed his own version of events on Jan 13 last year — three days after the crime.