‘Irish would not want innocent men convicted’

The family of honeymooner Michaela McAreavey and the people of Ireland would not want innocent men convicted of her murder, defence lawyers have told jurors.

Barristers for the two Mauritius hotel workers accused of the crime also called for a new police probe into her death at the Legends hotel, insisting the real culprit was still at large.

Counsel for Sandip Mooneea, 43, and Avinash Treebhoowon, 32, urged the jury to find their clients not guilty as they delivered separate closing addresses to their trial at the Supreme Court in Port Louis.

The proceedings were adjourned until Thursday, when the jury is expected to retire to consider its verdict.

Rama Valayden, Mr Mooneea’s lawyer, said convicting the men would inflict a wound on Ms McAreavey’s soul.

In an hours-long address, he said a fresh police probe would allow her family finally to get the truth.

“Send the right signal to our Irish brothers and sisters — in Mauritius we love you and we want justice to be done and for justice to be done we want a new inquiry,” he told the jury.

Mr Treebhoowon and Mr Mooneea deny murdering the daughter of Tyrone gaelic football boss Mickey Harte in her hotel room. Both defendants worked at the resort when she was found strangled last January.

“Do you think there’s one person in Ireland will say — it doesn’t matter who you get, we want a head,” Mr Valayden asked the jury.

Sanjeev Teeluckdharry, Mr Treebhoowon’s lawyer, accused police of embarking on a “wild hunt” to find scapegoats.

The prosecution claims the defendants attacked the 27-year-old when she found them stealing in her room.

Mr Treebhoowon signed a confession statement three days after Ms McAreavey died but has since insisted the admission was extracted by police brutality.

The teacher’s widower John McAreavey and other family members were not in court as closing remarks on the 32nd day of the trial were delivered.

Mr Teeluckdharry was critical of Mr McAreavey’s evidence, claiming he was “evasive” and his evidence contained a number of “disturbing” features.

During evidence, Mr McAreavey said while he was attending to his wife after lifting her body from a bath of running water, he had run back to turn the tap off. Mr Teeluckdharry questioned his actions.

However, the lawyer later said he had no reason not to believe Mr McAreavey. He claimed the police’s basic failure to carry out simple lines of inquiry to eliminate him as a suspect had resulted in finger pointing.

Both lawyers were scathing of the state’s view that DNA tests which showed no link to the suspects and the crime scene or the body did not mean they were innocent.

While no DNA traces of the accused were found in the room, a potential match to another former worker, Dassen Naraynen, was discovered in the bathroom.

Mr Naraynen has been charged with conspiracy to commit larceny at the hotel — something he denies — having previously had a charge of conspiracy to murder dropped.

The defence claimed his potential involvement had not been fully investigated.