McAreavey trial: Hotel worker 'heard scream'

A hotel worker has described in court the moment he claims he heard Michaela McAreavey scream out as she was being murdered in Mauritius.

Raj Theekoy told the trial of two men accused of the murder that he saw both of them coming from the direction of the luxury room at the Legends Hotel on the island shortly afterwards.

“I started hearing a woman screaming three times, aghh,” Mr Theekoy said, recounting the incident last January. “She was screaming in pain.”

State prosecutor Mehdi Manrakhan asked him, was he sure?

Mr Theekoy said yes, imitating the cry to a silent court.

He said he was scared and initially thought a husband and wife were having a fight.

But then he claims he saw the two defendants emerge from the direction of the room.

Fellow legends employees Sandip Moneea, 42, and Avinash Treebhoowoon, 31, deny strangling the 27-year-old in room 1025 of the exclusive beach side complex.

Mr Theekoy said he and the two defendants were among employees who went to the scene of the crime as a commotion broke out when Mrs McAreavey’s body was discovered.

“I went to room 1025, the door was open, I saw the dead body of the lady,” he said.

Mr Theekoy said her husband John was in a distressed state:

“He was crying and said: 'Please save my wife'.”

The prosecution claim the tragic honeymooner momentarily left her husband beside a pool to get biscuits from their room when she walked in and caught the two defendants stealing.

Mr Theekoy, who along with the two accused worked at Legends at the time, is appearing as a prosecution witness at the high profile trial in the Supreme Court in Port Louis.

He was originally arrested as a suspect in the case and subsequently charged with conspiracy to murder. But that charge has since been dropped and he has been granted immunity from prosecution.

He is giving evidence in his native tongue of French Creole.

A short time before the murder, Mr Theekoy claims he was cleaning room 1012 when the two defendants walked in.

He alleges that Treebhoowoon told Moneea that a Do Not Disturb sign was still hanging outside the McAreaveys’ room.

The room attendant told police that Moneea then called the room to see if there was an answer.

With no one picking up, Mr Theekoy has said Moneea sent Treebhoowoon to clean the room.

About 50 minutes later, Mr Theekoy claims he left room 1012 and went to see Treebhoowoon.

But when he got to room 1025 he noticed the door was shut and says shortly after he heard a woman cry out.

He claims the two co-workers then came from the direction of the room. Instead of checking the room or raising the alarm, Mr Theekoy says he went and hid.

The attendant further claims that Moneea warned him to keep his mouth shout when he later confronted him about what he saw.