Parents of honeymoon couple speak of ‘senseless’ killings

But the relatives of Ben and Catherine Mullany said they would never comprehend the “senseless nature” of the killings at the five-star Cocos Hotel in July 2008.

Kaniel Martin, 23, and Avie Howell, 20, could face the death penalty after their two-month trial.

They also faced charges of shooting dead a local shopkeeper.

Emotional scenes played out at Antigua’s High Court as the verdicts were announced.

In a statement, the distressed families said there was no joy in the verdict, “just a sense of relief that after three years of waiting there is justice for our children.

“These two individuals can never again inflict the same anguish and devastation to any other family as they have to ours.

“We will never be able to comprehend the senseless nature of their deaths, the total disregard shown for human life and that no remorse has ever been shown.”

Mr and Mrs Mullany had only been married for two weeks when they were each shot in the back of the head during a dawn raid on their luxury hotel chalet.

Mrs Mullany, a doctor, died instantly, while student physiotherapist Mr Mullany was flown back home to South Wales in a desperate attempt to save his life.

But despite the efforts of his wife’s medical colleagues in Swansea, his life-support was switched off a week after the shooting.

The couple were buried in the grounds of St John The Evangelist Church, the same church where they married a little over a month previously.

Two weeks after the murders, Howell and Martin went on to kill again, this time targeting 43-year-old shopkeeper Woneta Anderson.

The pair, who refused to face questioning in court, protested their innocence throughout their trial but yesterday – three years to the day they committed the murders – they were found guilty.

Dressed in jeans and shirts, neither showed any sign of emotion as the jury of eight men and four women delivered its verdicts after a wait of more than 10 hours.

Mr Mullany’s parents, Cynlais and Marilyn, and their daughter-in-law’s mother and father, Rachel and David Bowen, broke down in tears.

The couple’s two-week honeymoon, their stay at Cocos, on the south-east coast of the island had been a wedding present from friends and family and was just at its end when they were gunned down.

Guests at the exclusive retreat heard screams coming from cottage 15, before the sound of gunshots filled the air.

Martin and Howell, who had been enjoying Antigua’s carnival celebrations hours before, targeted their cabin completely at random and it remains unclear who shot the couple.

The pair claimed to be nowhere near the hotel room but mobile phone records proved Martin had been in the area around the time of the shooting.

Following the attack, he made a call to Howell’s 31-year-old girlfriend Georgette Aaron, who had rented a Jeep the day before.

The two killers were seen in the vehicle about an hour later – but drove past some friends who hailed them.

Following the Mullany murders, the pair then went to strike again on August 8 - this time at the Morning Glory Sunshine shop.

The pair will be sentenced on September 26.