Michaela murder ended my life too, tearful widower tells court

Heartbroken widower John McAreavey said he and his wife had a game between themselves where they would always see if they could secure a better room when they arrived at a hotel.

The 27-year-old said his bride had always wanted to visit Mauritius and good reviews prompted her to pick the Legends Hotel.

Fighting back tears, Mr McAreavey told the trial of two men accused of her murder he fell to his knees and prayed after he frantically tried to revive his “wonderful, wonderful” wife.

During an emotional testimony at the Supreme Court in the Mauritian capital Port Louis, he revealed police originally suspected him of strangling his bride and told him he faced a long stretch in jail if he did not co-operate.

Mr McAreavey, an accountant from Co Down, Northern Ireland, said he was handcuffed and left alone for more than five hours in a police station, claiming one officer told him: “What are you crying about? You’re young, you’ll get another wife.”

The daughter of Tyrone Gaelic football boss Mickey Harte was found dead in the bath of her room at the luxury beachside Legends Hotel last January.

The prosecution claims hotel employees Sandip Moneea and Avinash Treebhoowoon murdered the 27-year-old teacher when she returned to the room at the exclusive complex and caught them stealing.

Former room attendant Treebhoowoon, 31, from Plaine des Roches, and floor supervisor Moneea, 42, from Petit Raffray, deny murdering Irish language and religious education teacher Mrs McAreavey, from Ballygawley, Co Tyrone.

Appearing as a prosecution witness, Mr McAreavey was asked by a state lawyer to recall the events of the day.

“It was the day that my wife was murdered, that her life was ended and my life was ended,” he said.

“Everything was finished on that day, everything was destroyed. Our dreams were destroyed.”

Mr McAreavey described how he and his wife had lunched by a pool before she left him to make the short trip back to their room to get biscuits.

Around 45 minutes later, having asked a bellboy to let him into his room, he told the court how he walked in to see his wife floating in the bath as cold water poured from the tap.

He told the court he grabbed her, lay her on the floor and screamed for help.

“Michaela was cold,” he said, his voice halting. He said her lips were blue and he kept saying “‘Michaela, Michaela, wake up, come on, come on.’

“I was just holding her in my arms, telling her to come on, just to wake up.”

The hotel manager and a male nurse soon arrived and started mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, he said.

“I was down on my hands and knees, I was praying, I couldn’t understand what was happening,” Mr McAreavey told the court.

It was then that the doctor told him his wife was dead. “I just collapsed on the bed, I was like a very hysterical child crying,” he said.

The court also heard that the couple never got the chance to spend a single night in the house they planned to start married life in.

Mr McAreavey said they intended to move into the home in Lawrencetown, Northern Ireland, after returning from their honeymoon in Mauritius.

It was, he said, supposed to be an exciting new chapter in their lives following a magical wedding

During his evidence, he spoke about how he was treated by police following his wife’s death.

Mr McAreavey said four officers had brought him from the hotel to a “derelict-looking building”, where he was put in a room.

Officers took off his shirt and examined him for marks, he told the court.

“I could see what was going through their minds,” he said. “They put handcuffs on me and I was sat down on a bench.”

Mr McAreavey said he was then left alone in the room for at least five hours before eventually being released.

The trial continues.