A HOTEL worker accused of murdering Michaela McAreavey in Mauritius last year said he was beaten and had his head held under water while in police custody.
Avinash Treebhoowoon (30) initially confessed he was involved in the killing but later retracted the confession.
He and Sandeep Moneea (42), a second employee at Legends Hotel, have pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ms McAreavey, the daughter of Tyrone football manager Mickey Harte.
The 27-year-old teacher was on honeymoon with her husband John when she was killed.
On the third day of the trial in the Mauritian capital of Port Louis yesterday, the court also heard claims that officers failed to put anti-contamination clothes on Mr Treebhoowoon when he was brought to the crime scene for a reconstruction three days after the killing.
The evidence about the alleged police violence was contained in official documents from preliminary hearings about the case.
Mr Treebhoowoon’s lawyer, Sanjeev Teeluckdharry, read into the record a complaint made by the room attendant to court authorities in the days after the crime in January last year.
“I was brought to Piton police station and I was dealt two slaps at my face, at my left cheek and ear,” he said, according to the statement.
“I was brought to the MCIT in Port Louis. There I was undressed and placed in a lying position. I was held by the police and assaulted at the heels and then I was dealt five slaps to my left ear and I can’t hear well on one side.
“I was made to suffocate on a towel and I was assaulted again on a table. In the police van I was dealt furthermore [beatings] in the police van.”
Two days later, Mr Teeluckdharry said, Mr Treebhoowoon claimed he was brought to a police station in Port Louis and asked to sit down.
“It was about 7pm. I was placed on the table. I was undressed and a pail of water was filled. I was on a chair, I was gripped by the neck and placed into that pail of water.”
Ms McAreavey was found dead in her hotel room shortly after having lunch with her husband by the pool at Legends Hotel, since renamed the Lux Grand Gaube, in the north of the Indian Ocean island.
The prosecution claim she returned to her room to collect biscuits for a cup of tea and caught the accused stealing.
It emerged yesterday that a witness who claims he saw both accused men leave the room where Ms McAreavey was strangled was himself charged in connection with the crime.
The court has already heard that Raj Theekoy, who will give evidence in the case, claims he heard a woman cry out in pain from the McAreaveys’ room and then saw the two accused exit.
He alleges that Mr Moneea threatened to implicate him in the case if he opened his mouth.
Earlier, the court heard that Mr Treebhoowoon was not wearing anti-contamination clothes when he was taken to the crime scene for a reconstruction three days after the murder.
Police officers who attended the exercise in room 1025 were also not in protective clothing, a police photographer told jurors.
In the afternoon, a police draughtsman who had drawn up maps of the room and its surroundings was questioned at length by defence counsel Ravi Ratnah, junior counsel representing Mr Treebhoowoon.
The lawyer asked PC Rajen Hurobin for a range of exact measurements in and around the room where Ms McAreavey was found, and about who he saw at the scene. The line of questioning frustrated Judge Prithviraj Fecknah, who told him he was repeating himself and asking irrelevant questions. “This risks getting out of hand,” he said.
The case against Mr Treebhoowoon, from Plaine des Roches, and hotel floor supervisor Mr Moneea, from Petit Raffray, was scheduled to last two weeks but looks set to go on for longer. Judge Fecknah said yesterday that a “lengthy trial” was ahead.
