The McAreavey family will seek damages from a Mauritian newspaper that printed photographs of her body. (Pic: PA)

The family of murdered Irish honeymooner Michaela McAreavey are to sue the Mauritian newspaper that printed photographs of her body for damages of £400,000.

The 27-year-old Co Tyrone teacher, who was the only daughter of Tyrone Gaelic football manager Mickey Harte, was strangled in her room in the luxury Legends hotel in Mauritius last January.

In the wake of a high-profile murder trial this summer, which saw two former hotel workers acquitted of the crime, the Mauritian Sunday Times printed police crime scene photos that showed the newlywed’s body lying in the room.

The family has now launched a civil action against the paper’s publisher and editor for damages, claiming the publication outraged Ms McAreavey’s dignity and compromised the police investigation into the crime.

The paper has no connection to Britain’s and Ireland Sunday Times.

The McAreavey family’s lawyer Dick Ng Sui Wa said legal papers have been lodged with the Supreme Court in Mauritius and a date for the first court appearance has been set for January 10.

He said any damages would be donated to a charity foundation set up in memory of the Ballygawley woman.

“The purpose of the claim is to benefit the foundation,” he said.

After the publication in July, the editor of the paper Imran Hosany was charged by Mauritian police with outraging public and religious morality. He denies the charges.

The latest legal development comes after the relatives launched a civil case against the hotel where Ms McAreavey died for damages that could top £1m.

The hotel has since been renamed Lux.

The basis for that case will be the claim that the hotel failed to provide a safe place for Ms McAreavey to stay.

Co-defendant Avinash Treebhoowoon arrives at the Supreme Court in Port Louis, Mauritius. (Pic: Nicholas Larche/PA)

The family of honeymooner Michaela McAreavey and the people of Ireland would not want innocent men convicted of her murder, defence lawyers have told jurors.

Barristers for the two Mauritius hotel workers accused of the crime also called for a new police investigation into the Co Tyrone teacher’s death at the island’s Legends hotel, insisting the real culprit was still at large.

Counsel for Sandip Moneea and Avinash Treebhoowoon urged the jury to find their clients not guilty as they delivered separate closing addresses to their trial at the Supreme Court in Port Louis.

At the close, proceedings were adjourned to Thursday, when the jury is expected to retire to consider its verdict after receiving judicial directions.

Former Mauritian attorney general Rama Valayden, representing Moneea, said convicting the men would inflict a wound on Mrs McAreavey’s soul.

“Don’t cause another injury to Michaela wherever she is,” he said.

The lawyer, in an address lasting almost three-and-a-half hours, said a fresh police probe would allow her family finally to get the truth.

“Come back and send the right signal to our nation,” he told the nine jury members.

“Send the right signal to our Irish brothers and sisters – in Mauritius we love you and we want justice to be done and for justice to be done we want a new inquiry.”

Treebhoowoon, 32, from Plaine de Roches, and Moneea, 43, from Petit Raffray, deny murdering the daughter of Tyrone gaelic football boss Mickey Harte in her deluxe room in Legends.

Both defendants worked at the exclusive beachside resort at the time she was found strangled last January.

As the two accused watched on from the dock, Mr Valayden said he had great respect for Ireland.

“The Irish nation is a great nation,” he said.

“I love that nation for their struggle against British colonialism. All those who know me always know I have been a supporter of Sinn Fein.”

Lambasting the original police investigation, he asked jurors if justice had really been rendered to Mrs McAreavey.

“Do you think one person in Ireland, with its history of miscarriages of justice, would say – any person you get, it’s okay?

“Do you think there’s one person in Ireland will say – it doesn’t matter who you get, we want a head.”

Treebhoowoon’s counsel Sanjeev Teeluckdharry, who was the first to present his closing submissions, also called for a new investigation.

“Let me tell you ladies and gentlemen there’s no pride in tacking the skins of innocents on the wall,” he said, accusing the police of embarking on a rushed “wild hunt” to find scapegoats.

“It’s my humble opinion that this whole inquiry needs to be reopened,” he said.

The lawyer added: “So we can know the truth.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the image of our country internationally cannot be mended by condemning two innocent men to hell for 60 years whilst the real culprit is still at large.”

The prosecution claims the defendants attacked the 27-year-old newlywed when she interrupted them stealing in her room.

Treebhoowoon signed a confession statement three days after Mrs McAreavey died but has since insisted the admission was extracted by police brutality.

The teacher’s widower John McAreavey and other family members were not present in court as the defence delivered their closing remarks on what was the 32nd day of proceedings.

In its closing address last week, the prosecution criticised defence lawyers for raising “grotesque” and unfounded theories during the trial which pointed fingers of blame at Mr McAreavey.

Both lawyers broached the issue today, though they took different approaches.

Mr Teeluckdharry was critical of the evidence the widower gave in the witness box, claiming he was “evasive” under cross examination and his evidence contained a number of “disturbing” features.

During his evidence Mr McAreavey said while he was attending to his wife after lifting her body from a bath of running water he had run back to turn the tap off.

Mr Teeluckdharry questioned his actions.

“The person who is most important to him in the world is lying there inanimate and he’s attracted by the sound of gushing water in the bath tub?” he said.

Mr McAreavey told the court he went to look for his wife when she did not return to him at a poolside restaurant having left to fetch biscuits from their room.

The lawyer said no explanation had been offered by the Co Down accountant why he had not tried to phone her.

He asked why police had not made inquiries about certain possessions found in the McAreaveys’ room, including a laptop, phones and a sex guide.

Later the lawyer made complimentary remarks about Mrs McAreavey’s relations and insisted he was not there to hurt or prosecute anyone.

“I have a lot of respect for the Harte and McAreavey families. I admire the way they dealt with the horrible misfortune that has befallen on them,” he said.

“I admire the pride and courage of the Irish nation – a nation built up by the work of courageous men and women.

“It has not been my intention to hurt anyone, I am not here to prosecute anyone.

“But it is my duty to explore all areas that will lead to the truth because I know more than anyone else that the two people sitting in the dock are innocent.”

In referring to Mr McAreavey at one point in his address, Mr Valayden said he had no reason not to believe him.

He claimed the police’s basic failure to carry out simple lines of inquiry to eliminate him as a suspect had resulted in the finger pointing.

“At end of the day it (police action) would have excluded him completely from the list of persons who could have committed that act,” he said.

Mr Teeluckdharry later made another reference to the Irish people.

“I have a lot of respect for the Irish nation which has had its dark era, having to deal with burning issues of police brutality, extremism and serious miscarriages of justice,” he said.

“I’m extremely sorry that late Michaela Harte lost her life on our island but I’m even more sorry that the prosecution has not been able to bring the real culprit before you.”

In their lengthy submissions, both lawyers sifted through the evidence the prosecution relied on.

They were scathing of the state’s view that DNA tests which showed no link to the suspects and the crime scene or the body of Mrs McAreavey did not mean they were innocent.

Mr Teeluckdharry said: “Ladies and gentlemen, absence of DNA is not only evidence the two accused are innocent of the charge that the prosecution are accusing them of, but also that the real murderer is still at large.”

Mr Valayden said the stance was incredible.

“This is no longer in the domain of fact, no longer in domain of fiction, we are in the domain of fantasy,” he said.

The prosecution has insisted Treebhoowoon’s allegations of police brutality are made up, highlighting that no external injuries were identified by three medics who examined him.

Mr Teeluckdharry, in a speech running in excess of two and a half hours, said it was well known police used techniques that did not leave marks.

“It would be very naive of one to believe that police would torture in such a way as to leave traces and injuries,” he said.

The lawyer then asked jurors how they would have reacted when faced with the choice of signing a confession or facing further torture.

“You are at the mercy of police – what would you have done?” he said.

Former Legends employee Raj Theekoy implicated both accused when he testified for the state by claiming he saw them exit from the room where the teacher died – 1025 – shortly after hearing a woman cry out in pain.

Mr Theekoy was originally charged with conspiracy to commit murder but criminal proceedings against him were dropped and he was given immunity to testify in court.

Both defence lawyers attacked his credibility and branded him a serial liar.

“This is not a truthful person,” said Mr Teeluckdharry.

Mr Valayden added: “If truth sees him coming, truth will run away from him and let him walk alone in the alleyway.”

He described the witness’s testimony as “lies, lies, lies”.

While no DNA traces of the accused were found in the room, a potential match to another former staff member, Dassen Naraynen, was discovered in the bathroom.

Naraynen has been charged with conspiracy to commit larceny at the hotel – something he denies – having previously had a charge of conspiracy to murder dropped.

The defence lawyers both claimed his potential involvement had not been fully investigated by the police.

Time and again the barristers focused on perceived failings by the police – particularly officers of the major crime investigation team (MCIT).

“The alleged confession of accused number one (Treebhoowoon) was fabricated by over-zealous MCIT officers piece by piece and line by line,” claimed Mr Teeluckdharry.

Mr Valayden was equally scathing: “The MCIT could put any person in that box (the dock) and say you have killed president John Kennedy.”

The barrister said the police’s repeated claim of being “satisfied” – in the face of evidence that he said cast doubt on the guilt of the accused – risked Mauritius’s standing in the eyes of the world.

“They (the police) are playing with the reputation of our country,” he said.

“Playing with the tourist industry and jobs of thousands of people and they are ‘satisfied’ that things have been done?”

During his case, Mr Valayden presented phone records to the jury that showed a four-minute call from a mobile registered to Moneea at 2.45pm on the day of the murder – around the time the prosecution claim Mrs McAreavey was strangled in a violent struggle.

The state has not disputed that the accused made the call, but have said he did it inside 1025 in a bid to ask advice from his sister having committed the murder.

The defence lawyer branded that theory laughable.

“You are standing inside a place where you just committed a murder and you stay there and call?” he asked rhetorically.

Concluding his address to the jury, Mr Teeluckdharry relied heavily on a religious metaphor.

“It’s been a long, exhaustive and taxing trial, ladies and gentlemen,” he said.

“Law is a discipline – you are today on the 49th day of your legal pilgrimage, you have today been able to transcend the prejudices.

“Ladies and gentlemen, you have today reached the wuthering heights, you have today reached the mountain top.

“The call of destiny has wanted you to reach the mountain top. From there the call of time is whispering in your ear.

“From the mountain top you can see, ladies and gentlemen, ahead of you, you can see the promised land.

“The promised land where lives democracy and respect for freedom and rights. The promised land where inquiries are conducted out in a scientific manner with the help of science; innocents are not being tortured to extract confessions; innocents are not being sent to trial and jail.”

He said the verdict would have serious repercussions on whether society in Mauritius went forward or backward.

“You will have to deliver a verdict, you will have to bring this Mauritian society to the promised land,” he said.

Mr Valayden employed meteorological imagery.

He said the police were creating a hole in Mauritian society like the one in the ozone layer.

“It’s better that 10 guilty persons get away than one or two innocent persons go to prison, innocent persons who don’t have resources to fight,” he added.

“If you don’t wake up and see the police are failing, one day you will wake up with a hole in your own head.

“A hole in your conscience.”

Telling the jurors he wanted to look them in the eye one last time, he implored: “Please do your jobs, please find them not guilty.”

Mauritius Assistant Commissioner of Police Yoosoof Soopun. (Pic: Paul Faith/PA)

Management at the hotel where Michaela McAreavey was murdered failed to co-operate properly with police and were more concerned with damage to its reputation than catching the killer, a court in Mauritius has heard.

In a scathing attack on an alleged “dirty game” played by the island’s Legends Hotel, a police chief claimed the honeymooner’s husband was initially arrested as a suspect because information that would have eliminated him from inquires was withheld from detectives.

Giving evidence at the trial of the two former Legends employees accused of the crime, Assistant Commissioner of Police Yoosoof Soopun further alleged that management provided material to “the defence” which it should have given to police.

Former Legends room attendant Avinash Treebhoowoon, 31, and floor supervisor Sandip Moneea, 42, deny murdering the daughter of Tyrone Gaelic football boss Mickey Harte inside her deluxe room last January.

The prosecution claim they attacked her when she walked in and caught them stealing. Mr Soopun, who led the murder investigation, repeatedly criticised the hotel during a day on the witness stand in the Supreme Court in Port Louis.

At one point he told judge Mr Justice Prithviraj Fecknah: “Here I want to state my lord that the hotel management, as I said from the very beginning there was much concern to protect the reputation of the hotel rather than to discover who has killed the deceased.

“This is why my lord several important things have never been disclosed to the police.”

On the 16th day of the high-profile case Mr Soopun, who is in charge of the police’s major crime investigation team (MCIT), rejected a claim by Treebhoowoon that he threatened him with a revolver and told him he would die if he did not confess.

It also emerged that another hotel employee originally arrested over the crime and then released is now suing the police and Mauritian state over his treatment.

Testifying as a prosecution witness, Mr Soopun claimed one of the first instances of the hotel’s unco-operative stance was when officers were not given records of entries to room 1025 where the newlywed was found.

Mr Soopun said if that data had been available to officers at the outset then John McAreavey would never have been detained.

The bereaved widower was handcuffed and left alone in a police station for hours in the wake of his wife’s death.

Mr Soopun said the reading from the electronic door entry system was handed over only after “persistent requests”.

“I just want to state that hotel management, particularly the chief security officer Mr (Mohammad) Imrit, has played a dirty game with the police,” he said.

“Having that information earlier to the police, there’s no doubt the poor Mr John McAreavey would not have been taken to Piton police station and treated as a suspect by Piton CID.

“It was only on our persistent requests, my lord, that we obtained the reading and came to know that a magnetic card – JMK supervisor two – has been used at 1442 hours, some two minutes before the lady, the deceased Mrs McAreavey, had accessed the room.

“Then it was clear, my lord, that Mr John McAreavey must be disregarded as a suspect.”

Mr Soopun said he was “astonished” to find Mr McAreavey handcuffed in the police station later that night.

“He was crying and completely broken,” he added.

He said he immediately gave an order for him to be released.

The officer explained that later that night a sentry was placed outside the room he had been taken to at Legends for his own safety.

Mr Soopun was then asked by state prosecutor Mehdi Manrakhan to comment on a claim by Mr Imrit that police had failed to interview a German couple staying at the hotel who indicated they had something to tell officers.

“This is totally unfounded, it’s totally not true,” he said.

He added: “No Mr Imrit is lying, this shows the bad faith of Mr Imrit.”

Mr McAreavey and other family members were not present in court as the police chief levelled the claims against the hotel.

When questioned by Rama Valayden, representing Moneea, if tests were conducted to see if the room key cards found in the room where actually for 1025, Mr Soopun stated: “We didn’t have the co-operation of the hotel management, it’s unfortunate to have to tell this in court here.

“Hotel management has not co-operated with police yet they have communicated all the information to the defence.”

As it was the final question before court rose for the day, Mr Valayden insisted he would probe the officer’s claims further tomorrow.

Earlier, Sanjeev Teeluckdharry, representing Treebhoowoon, asked why police had not taken statements from a hotel doctor and nurse who had attended Mrs McAreavey.

Again Mr Soopun rounded on the hotel management.

“When we reached the hotel the director of the hotel (Brice Lunot) never said to the police who were those persons, apart from Dr Sunassee (another doctor from outside the hotel), who had accessed into the hotel,” he said.

During cross-examination by Mr Teeluckdharry, Mr Soopun confirmed that he was aware that another hotel employee – security guard Seenarain Mungroo – was suing police.

He was arrested and provisionally charged with conspiracy to murder but later released.

Mr Soopun said he had been initially implicated by another suspect Dassen Naraynen.

The officer said Naraynen subsequently admitted to stealing the key card that was used to access room 1025 moments before the murder as part of a “widespread conspiracy to commit larceny”.

Mr Teeluckdharry asked Mr Soopun if he knew that Mr Mungroo had lodged a legal bid in the wake of his arrest. “Mr Seenarain Mungroo has sued the head of your force and the state of Mauritius for damages on 8 May 2011?” he asked.

“Yes,” replied the officer.

Naraynen is currently facing a provisional larceny charge in connection with the case in separate court proceedings.

Mr Soopun said he was not involved in the murder but alleged he had plotted with Moneea to steal.

“Mr Dassen Naraynen is completely excluded as being one of the murderers but Mr Dassen Naraynen has conspired with the accused,” he said.

“Mr Dassen Naraynen has participated in widespread larceny.”

Treebhoowoon originally signed a statement of confession admitting involvement in the murder but has since insisted it was beaten out of him.

Mr Soopun was confronted with claims that he threatened Treebhoowoon with a revolver tucked into his sock.

Mr Teeluckdharry said the officer called his client a number of expletives, showed him the gun, and then said: “If you don’t speak you’ll die today.”

The officer said the allegation was a “complete lie”.

“I never use that kind of language, this would be confirmed by my men and my family,” he added.

“In regard to the revolver we never carry any revolver in MCIT except when we go out.”

Mr Soopun said when he was at the Legends Hotel the day after the murder he saw Moneea changing work sheets to suggest Treebhoowoon was not due to clean room 1025 around the time of the murder.

“He was trying to shield accused number one in relation to room 1025, this clearly shows there was a link between the two of them,” he said.

Questioned on other aspects of the case, Mr Soopun explained why a purse found in the hotel room was not tested for DNA despite claims in Treebhoowoon’s alleged confession he was rifling through a purse when Mrs McAreavey walked in.

The officer said Mr McAreavey had told police nothing was taken from the purse so it was later returned to him. It was three days after the murder when the defendant made the alleged claim, he said.

“By that time it was too late, John McAreavey was already at the airport with the coffin of his wife to leave for Ireland,” he said.

Mr Teeluckdharry then asked why a belt found in the room had not been sent to a specialist forensic scientist in England along with other items.

The officer said medical reports stated that no ligature was used in strangling the 27-year-old teacher and so it was not deemed necessary to carry out further tests on the belt.

The lawyer also pressed the police chief on his reaction to DNA tests from other items in the room and from samples taken from Mrs McAreavey that showed no link to the defendants.

Mr Soopun said the report did not change his mind.

“I was personally satisfied that the two persons, accused number one and accused number two, are directly involved in the murder of the poor deceased,” he said.

Mr Teeluckdharry accused the officer of denying him and his fellow lawyer Ravi Rutnah a private meeting with their client for six days after the murder.

Mr Soopun rejected the claim and explained that the detention centre where the barristers had requested the interview was not suitable and that he would have arranged for one to take place elsewhere if asked.

But the police chief added: “It was my duty to protect the rights of detainees but also I have to point out that I have to protect the integrity of my enquiry. In that particular case my lord the main exhibit, a magnetic card which had access to the room, had not yet been recovered and there was apprehension that other people may be involved in that case my lord.”

This answer drew an angry response from Mr Teeluckdharry.

“To protect the integrity you had to deny accused number one the right to interview,” he challenged.

“No, this is not correct,” the officer responded.

The lawyer continued: “According to you, counsel were tampering with evidence that has not been recovered?”

At this juncture, Mr Manrakhan interjected, insisting that was not what the witness had stated.

Mauritian Police Chief Inspector Luciano Gerard outside the Supreme Court in Port Louis, Mauritius, on day seven of the trial. (Pic: Paul Faith/PA)

The trial of two hotel workers accused of murdering Michaela McAreavey has been rocked after a lawyer dramatically withdrew from the case and signalled his intent to appear as a witness.

Ravi Rutnah, a barrister for defendant Avinash Treebhoowoon, told the court in Mauritius he was stepping down after claiming a senior police officer had attacked his professional integrity while giving evidence.

In a final flourish before leaving the Supreme Court in Port Louis, the lawyer declared to the jury that he would be back in “Arnold Schwarzenegger style”.

The development has left a cloud of uncertainty hanging over proceedings, pending legal submissions tomorrow.

It came after prosecution witness Chief Inspector Luciano Gerard outlined to the court how Treebhoowoon had confessed to murdering the daughter of Tyrone gaelic football boss Mickey Harte along with co-worker Sandip Moneea in her room at the island’s luxury Legends Hotel last January.

In the statement, the accused asked for forgiveness and said they had only intended to steal from the 27-year-old teacher’s room, but killed her when she came back unexpectedly and caught them red-handed.

“If the woman did not come we would have stole the money,” he told police.

“We don’t know her, we had no reason to kill her, because she saw us we had to kill her.”

As well as reading the defendant’s admission statement – which described in graphic detail the tragic honeymooner’s last moments as she fought for her life – Mr Gerard made a series of claims about Mr Rutnah.

He said he was late arriving for a meeting with his client, after he signalled his desire to make a confession statement, and also shared food – fried rice – in a convivial atmosphere with investigating police officers.

Mr Rutnah said this amounted to an “accusatory attack” on his reputation.

“As a direct consequence of that, I have decided to withdraw representing accused number one, Avinash Treebhoowoon,” he said.

The lawyer added: “I wish to withdraw but I will be back – in Arnold Schwarzenegger style.”

In the wake of his exit, Treebhoowoon’s remaining counsel, Sanjeev Teeluckdharry told judge Mr Justice Prithviraj Fecknah that he wanted to tender a list of additional witnesses for the defence.

Mr Rutnah is now one of those proposed to take the stand.

But with witnesses in Mauritian courts usually unable to attend proceedings ahead of giving evidence – a rule that has seen Mrs McAreavey’s husband John excluded from the trial thus far – the court is presented with a problem.

Judge Fecknah adjourned the trial early to allow both defence and prosecution counsel to consider their next moves.

Treebhoowoon, a room attendant at Legends, has subsequently claimed the admission he made to police was forced out of him by violent means.

He and Moneea denying murdering the Co Tyrone woman.

Before the legal twist, Chief Insp Gerard read Treebhoowoon’s signed confession statement to the packed courtroom.

Mr Rutnah was present when he was giving it to police on the afternoon of January 13 last year – three days after the murder.

In it Treebhoowoon said Mrs McAreavey had disturbed him and Moneea as they were burgling the room of her and her husband.

Mr Gerard read the accused’s statement to the jury.

The defendant told officers the newlywed returned to the room and shouted when she saw him with her purse. He then pushed her to the floor.

“I think at that time she must have seen Sandip,” Treebhoowoon said.

“She was screaming and I told Sandip, ‘Let’s stop her from screaming’.

“At the time she was on the floor she was not injured.

“I grabbed her feet with my two arms and Sandip came next to her and sat and with one hand, left or right, I cannot remember, pressed on her neck to stop her from screaming, and with the other hand he pressed on her shoulders.

“He continued to press for a minute at the neck. While he was pressing she was struggling and he continued to press until she lost consciousness.

“She was breathing but she couldn’t talk.”

The defendant then told police his co-accused said they had to kill her, so she could not identify them.

He told officers that they then carried her into the bathroom, dumped her in the bath, turned on the water and attempted to wash fingerprints off her.

They left the room and went and hid, returning to the scene soon afterwards as other staff panicked to witness Mr McAreavey screaming and trying to “wake” his wife.

Shortly after making the statement, Treebhoowoon accompanied officers back to Legends Hotel for a reconstruction exercise, pointing out exactly where in room 1025 events had unfolded.

The officer said both Mr Rutnah and Mr Teeluckdharry were informed about this exercise and said it could proceed without them being present.

The defendant made the statement the day after he first admitted the crime to police.

He made a brief confession, implicating Moneea, when he was confronted with evidence given by fellow employee Raj Theekoy.

Mr Theekoy, who was originally a suspect in the case but has since had a conspiracy to murder charge against him dropped, will testify to the trial that he saw the two accused coming out of the room shortly after hearing a woman screaming inside.

After the defendant made his full admission, the officer revealed, he met with his father and was heard to say: “Forget about your son now. I have made a mistake.”

The chief inspector said Treebhoowoon then burst into tears.

Principal state counsel Mehdi Manrakhan pressed Mr Gerard on a complaint made by Treebhoowoon about police brutality.

The officer replied: “No my lord it is totally false and unfounded.”

He pointed out that three suspects had been arrested – Treebhoowoon, Moneea and Mr Theekoy – yet only the former made any complaint.

“There has never been any violence used toward any of the accused,” he said.

The officer added: “On the contrary we brought refreshments for the accused suspects and for ourselves.”

Mr Gerard said Treebhoowoon’s wife Reshma had visited him before he made his full confession and signed a statement indicating he was in good health.

Mr Manrakhan asked the officer to comment on claims Treebhoowoon made two months after his confession to a police complaints body when he accused him of threatening behaviour to him and Mr Rutnah.

The chief inspector again denied the claims.

“No never,” he said.

“This is not my habit”

The officer said police relations with Mr Rutnah were actually good and on the evening of the 12th, after Treebhoowoon had initially confessed and agreed to provide a full admission statement, and they ate food together in the station.

“It was a cordial, friendly atmosphere because we even shared our food with Mr Rutnah,” he said.

“I still remember there was fried rice and I’m not fond of fried rice and I gave him my portion -it was takeaway.”

This claim drew a rare smile from Mrs McAreavey’s father in law Brendan sitting in the public gallery with his daughter Claire.

Mr Gerard told the jury that Mr Rutnah had actually been late for that appointment at the station. He said he had been called by a police commander at 7.10pm and told that his client wanted to make a full statement.

The chief inspector said Mr Rutnah had indicated he would be there straight away but by 8.15pm, and despite a number of unanswered calls to him, he had still not arrived, prompting officers to send Treebhoowoon off to a detention centre for the night.

The lawyer did arrive at 8.33pm, allegedly claiming he had been tied up on other business.

The police vehicle bringing Treebhoowoon to the cells was ordered to return, but when he did finally consult with his lawyer the accused claimed he was too tired to make his statement that night.

Mr Gerard’s claims about Mr Rutnah triggered his dramatic exit from court and colourful pledge to return.

Family photo of John and Michaela McAreavey at the Giant's Causeway, in North Antrim.

A fourth man has been arrested by Mauritian police investigating the murder of Michaela McAreavey.

He is a member of the security staff at the four-star Legends Hotel, police on the island confirmed.

Yesterday around 3,000 people attended the funeral of the Irish language teacher, 27, who was strangled a week ago on her honeymoon.

A spokesman for police in Mauritius confirmed a further person is in custody in connection with the murder.

He told the BBC: “He is one of the persons who was engaged in security work.”

Three men, all staff at the luxury hotel, have been charged in connection with the killing, thought to have happened as newlywed Mrs McAreavey disturbed a burglary in her room.

Room attendant Avinash Treebhoowoon, 29, and floor superviser Sandip Moneea, 41, have been charged with murder, and room attendant Raj Theekoy, 33, with conspiracy to murder.

They are due to appear in court tomorrow.

Mrs McAreavey, from near Ballygawley, Co Tyrone, was the daughter of Tyrone GAA manager Mickey Harte. Yesterday her father and husband John carried her coffin as the crowd walked in silence to the church where she was married last month.

She was buried in her wedding dress.

Irish President Mary McAleese was among dignitaries at Requiem Mass.

Catholic Bishop of Dromore John McAreavey, the widower’s uncle, married the couple and delivered the address.

Mr Harte, Michaela’s mother Marian, and brothers Mark, Michael and Mattie led mourners at the compact country church after one of the main roads running through Tyrone was closed for the funeral procession.

Symbols representing Mrs McAreavey’s beauty, faith, love of family and the Irish language were presented at the beginning of the service.

Primate of the Catholic Church in Ireland Archbishop Sean Brady also took part.