Witness joked with accused after killing

A HOTEL cleaner who has implicated two colleagues in the killing of Michaela McAreavey was drinking tea and joking with one of the accused men an hour after the Irishwoman was strangled, it was claimed in court yesterday.

Raj Theekoy says he saw defendants Sandip Moneea and Avinash Treebhoowoon leave the McAreaveys’ room at Legends Hotel minutes after hearing a woman inside scream in pain.

Under cross-examination yesterday, Mr Theekoy was presented with CCTV images showing him entering the hotel’s staff canteen at 3.46pm on January 10th, 2011 – about an hour after Ms McAreavey was killed.

Defence counsel Rama Valayden put it to him that, while there, he shared tea and joked with Mr Treebhoowoon.

The key prosecution witness, who had not previously mentioned being in the canteen that afternoon, said he did not fully recall being there but denied he had been untruthful on the stand. “You are lying,” said Mr Valayden.

“Whatever I have seen or heard is the same as what I have told the court,” Mr Theekoy replied.

The prosecution says Ms McAreavey, the 27-year-old daughter of Tyrone football manager Mickey Harte, was murdered after she left her husband John at a poolside restaurant in the hotel to collect biscuits from her room, only to walk in on Mr Moneea and Mr Treebhoowoon stealing. The couple were on honeymoon at the time.

Mr McAreavey is due to take the stand at the Criminal Court in Port Louis, the Mauritian capital, this morning. While he has been on the island throughout the 11 days of the trial, he has been unable to attend court proceedings until called to give evidence.

Mr Theekoy was originally charged with conspiracy to murder, but that case was dropped and he was granted immunity from prosecution.

Sanjeev Teeluckdharry, representing Mr Treebhoowoon, pressed the witness on his 77 days spent in jail in connection with the case.

He asked Mr Theekoy whether his mind was on personal issues, such as an outstanding loan and the welfare of his wife and family, when he was giving his first statement to police implicating the defendants.

“Was your first objective to get out of jail?” Mr Teeluckdharry asked. The witness said his priority was “the truth”.

Throughout cross-examination, Mr Theekoy was pressed by both defence lawyers to explain apparent inconsistencies between his statements to police and what he said in court.

These included whether he had a clear sight of room 1025 from his viewpoint beside room 1021 when he claims the defendants emerged; and the issue regarding times at which he said he entered rooms to clean them prior to the murder, which did not appear to tally with electronic key card readings.

The defence also wanted to know why he did not mention Mr Moneea coming out of the room when he initially detailed his account to police. Mr Theekoy claimed he only remembered about Mr Moneea when he took part in a reconstruction exercise at the hotel. Mr Moneea (42) and Mr Treebhoowoon (31) both deny the charges.

The court also heard yesterday from Mark L’Olive, a supervisor at the Banyan restaurant at Legends, who recalled how Ms McAreavey had ordered a cup of tea from him minutes before her killing.

“It takes about three minutes to prepare the tea. When I returned to leave the tea at table number six only Mr John was sitting, but his wife wasn’t there,” he said.

“He said, ‘Place the tea on the table and my wife will return’.”

Mr L’Olive said Mr McAreavey waited for about 15 minutes before signing the bill and walking off. “He said his wife isn’t coming so he’s leaving.”

Ms McAreavey’s body was discovered a short time later when her husband got a bellboy to let him into their room.