Accused traded favours to get room access card
The claim was put to Sandip Mooneea by detectives after he was arrested on suspicion of strangling the honeymooner in the luxury Legends Hotel in Mauritius.
Prosecutors believe the daughter of Tyrone Gaelic football boss Mickey Harte was murdered by Mr Mooneea and co-accused and fellow hotel employee Avinash Treebhoowon when she caught them stealing from her room in Jan 2011.
Former room attendant at the exclusive hotel Mr Treebhoowon, 31, from Plaine des Roches, and ex-floor supervisor Mr Mooneea, 42, from Petit Raffray, deny any involvement in the 27-year-old teacher’s death.
The trial in the Supreme Court in the Mauritian capital Port Louis also heard police claim another staff member at Legends lied about Mr Mooneea’s movements on the day of the murder to protect him.
Earlier, in another development, it emerged that Mr Mooneea was found to possess a fake French national identity card that he claimed was given to him unsolicited by an acquaintance when he worked in London for a period.
In Mr Mooneea’s police statements, read to the court in the defendant’s native French Creole by Inspector Ranjitsingh Jokhoo, he told officers he knew nothing of the crime and actually rushed to room 1025 when Mrs McAreavey was discovered inside and called for a doctor.
The 15th day of the high profile case also witnessed a police officer deny claims he tortured a confession out of Treebhoowon.
In one interview with detectives days after the crime, Mr Mooneea was confronted with the claim he had approached a security guard at Legends, Dassen Naraynen, four days before the murder and asked him for a room card that would enable him to steal from guests.
Police said he offered Mr Naraynen a favour in return.
“No I never did such a thing,” Mr Mooneea replied.
“I never said that to Dassen or anyone.”
Officers claimed that Mr Naraynen then gave him the card on Jan 10 — the day of the murder — in a tunnel on his way to the hotel.
“No this is not true, I never spoke about this to Dassen,” replied Mr Mooneea.
“He didn’t give me a card near the tunnel because I don’t pass by the tunnel. I pass by reception when I go to work.”
In the wake of the murder, police discovered that an unauthorised, non-traceable “dummy” card accessed the McAreaveys’ room moments before the honeymooner is claimed to have returned.
Mr Naraynen is currently facing a provisional charge of conspiracy to commit larceny in connection with the McAreavey case in separate court proceedings.
Mr Mooneea’s co defendant Mr Treebhoowon had initially signed a confession statement admitting the murder but has since claimed it was beaten out of him.
At the time Mr Mooneea was being questioned, Mr Treebhoowon’s alleged account was put to him: that Mr Mooneea choked Mrs McAreavey when she interrupted them while he held her legs, before they both dumped her in the bath and turned on the tap.
The interviewing detective added: “It was you, Sandip, who said: ‘We must kill her so that she does not report us and she does not recognise us.’
“What do you have to say to that?”
Mr Mooneea replied: “This is totally false because I never even went there [room 1025] and I have nothing to do with this death, I didn’t kill her and I don’t know how she died.
“I have no idea and I don’t know why Avinash is putting this blame on me.”
