Avinash Treebhoowoon reported to have admitted that he killed Irish teacher Michaela McAreavey
- guardian.co.uk,
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A hotel worker in Mauritius was tonight said by the country's police commissioner to have confessed to the murder of an Irish teacher while she was on honeymoon.
Avinash Treebhoowoon, 29, who appeared in court yesterday along with two others, is reported to have admitted that he killed Michaela McAreavey, the daughter of the All-Ireland Gaelic football winner Mickey Harte.
Earlier, a lawyer for Raj Theekoy, who is charged with conspiracy to murder, claimed his client had spoken to police and implicated the other two men.
Sandip Moneea, 41, also appeared in court yesterday accused of the murder.
All three were remanded in police custody for a week and will return to court next Wednesday, when they are expected either to be formally charged or released.
At the initial hearing in Mauritius, Treebhoowoon had explained to the court that he was taken by detectives on Tuesday evening for questioning. He alleged that he had been struck by police officers who were seeking to extract a confession from him.
Detectives on the island have said they are examining the DNA from skin tissue taken from the murdered woman's fingers.
Convicted murders in Mauritius can receive a prison sentence of up to 47 years.
McAreavey's new husband, John, found her body in the bath of the honeymoon suite at the luxury Legends hotel on Monday.
Today, two of the three accused were taken back to the hotel for a 30-minute reconstruction of the events surrounding the killing.
McAreavey's body is expected to arrive in Northern Ireland from Mauritius tomorrow.
Her husband, a Down Gaelic footballer, is on the flight taking her body back to Belfast via London. Members of his family and the Harte family are accompanying him.
In a statement last night, McAreavey said he had been left heartbroken and totally devastated.
"I love my wife, very, very much and my world revolved around her. I can't describe in words how lost I feel as Michaela is not just the light of my life — she is my life," he said.
It is understood her family hope to hold her funeral on Monday, in the same County Tyrone church where she was married on 30 December.
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