‘You’re young, you’ll get another wife’
Fighting back tears, John McAreavey told the trial of two men accused of her murder that he fell to his knees and prayed after he frantically tried to revive his “wonderful, wonderful” wife.
During an emotional testimony at the Supreme Court, he revealed that police originally suspected him of strangling his bride and told him he faced a long stretch in jail if he did not co-operate.
The 27-year-old accountant from Co Down said he was handcuffed and left alone for more than five hours in a police station, claiming one officer told him: “What are you crying about? You’re young, you’ll get another wife.”
The daughter of Tyrone Gaelic football boss Mickey Harte was found dead in the bath of her room at the luxury Legends Hotel in January last year.
Appearing as a prosecution witness, Mr McAreavey was asked by a state lawyer to recall the events of the day.
“Well, it was the day that my wife was murdered, that her life was ended and my life was ended,” he said.
Moments earlier he looked directly at both accused as he passed them in the dock on his way to the witness box.
“Everything was finished on that day, everything was destroyed. Our dreams were destroyed.”
At the outset of his testimony, Mr McAreavey spoke of his love for his wife and produced pictures of her that were passed to the jury.
“Michaela was a wonderful, wonderful person, a really special human,” he said.
“She completed my whole life. She was loved by her parents — she was their only daughter. She was cherished by her brothers — their only sister.
“She had so many special qualities that it would be impossible for me to fully explain how good a person she was.”
He later described how he and his wife had lunched by a pool before she left him to make the short trip back to their room to get biscuits.
He said he had offered to go but, because he had done so for her the night before, she told him it was OK.
“I assume she didn’t want me running round the whole time but I obviously wish she had let me go to the room.”
About 45 minutes later, having asked a bellboy to let him into their room, he told the court how he walked in to see his wife floating in the bath as cold water poured from the tap.
He told the court he grabbed her, lay her on the floor, and screamed for help.
“Michaela was cold,” he said, his voice halting.
“And her lips were blue and I kept on just saying ‘Michaela, Michaela, wake up, come on, come on’.
“Then I could see this mark on her neck. I didn’t know what was going on, I didn’t know what was going on. I was grabbing her and trying to press on her chest and trying to attempt CPR. I don’t even know CPR.
“I was just holding her in my arms, telling her to come on, just to wake up.”
The hotel manager and a male nurse soon arrived and commenced mouth- to-mouth resuscitation, he said.
“I was down on my hands and knees, I was praying, I couldn’t understand what was happening, I kept going into and out of the room,” said Mr McAreavey.
The prosecution claims hotel employees Sandip Mooneea and Avinash Treebhoowon murdered the 27-year-old teacher when she returned to the room at the exclusive beachside complex and caught them stealing.
Room attendant Mr Treebhoowon, aged 31, from Plaine des Roches, and floor supervisor Mr Mooneea, aged 42, from Petit Raffray, deny murdering Ms McAreavey.
