A FOURTH man was arrested yesterday by Mauritian police in connection with the murder of Michaela Harte on the Indian Ocean island last week.
According to a police spokesman, a security guard working at the hotel in which Ms Harte and her husband John McAreavey were honeymooning was taken into custody in the capital Port Louis yesterday.
“He is one of the persons who was engaged in security work,” the spokesman told the BBC.
Ms Harte, the daughter of Tyrone football manager Mickey Harte, was strangled in her room. Three cleaning staff from the exclusive Legends hotel in Grand Gaube, in the north of the island, have already been arrested and charged over her murder.
Room attendant Avinash Treebhoowoon (29) and floor supervisor Sandip Mooneea (41) have been charged with murder, and room attendant Raj Theekoy (33) with conspiracy to murder.
Police say Mr Treebhoowoon and Mr Theekoy have made admissions of guilt. Mr Mooneea has yet to confess to anything. In interviews with the police, he has maintained he was not near Ms Harte’s room when the crime took place. All three men will appear in court today.
It is understood the latest arrest is of a 26-year-old man named Dassen Narainen. He was taken into custody on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder and is also due in court today where he will be charged.
The charge is connected to the procurement of the electronic swipe card that was allegedly used to illegally gain entry to the room the couple were staying in at the Legends hotel. It is understood CCTV footage shows Mr Narainen was on duty the day of the murder.
However, he failed to report for duty in the days that followed the killing. Last Friday police interviewed a room service manager at the hotel who admitted he lost an electronic key that could access all the hotel’s rooms in the days before Ms Harte died.
On Monday thousands of people attended the funeral of the 27-year-old Irish language teacher at the same rural church in Co Tyrone, St Malachy’s in Ballymacilroy, where she married last month. Among the congregation at the church were President Mary McAleese and her husband, Dr Martin McAleese; the Catholic primate of Ireland, Cardinal Seán Brady; senior representatives from the Church of Ireland led by the Bishop of Down and Dromore, the Right Rev Harold Miller; and the Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, the Right Rev Ken Good.
The Taoiseach was represented by his aide-de-camp, Comdt Michael Treacy.