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Outrage as newspaper in Mauritius prints death photos of honeymoon bride Michaela McAreavey

Family and Irish government condemn publication of pictures in strongest possible terms

By
PATRICK COUNIHAN,
IrishCentral Staff Writer
Published Monday, July 16, 2012, 8:03 AM
Updated Monday, July 16, 2012, 8:18 AM

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The Legends Hotel complex, where the young bride was murdered, and Michaela Harte
The Legends Hotel complex, where the young bride was murdered, and Michaela Harte
Photo by Google Images


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The Irish government is to demand an apology to the family of the late Michaela McAreavey after a newspaper in Mauritius published photographs of her murder – including shots of her dead body.

The Mauritius Sunday Times shocked readers when it published a dozen photos of the scene at the Legends hotel on the island where Michaela, daughter of Tyrone GAA boss Mickey Harte, was murdered on her honeymoon.

The photos were printed on Sunday, just two days after two hotel workers accused of Michaela’s murder were cleared of all charges.

The black and white images appeared as Michaela’s husband John arrived back in Ireland after attending the sensational eight week long trial.

The recently launched paper printed a front page photo of Michaela taken after her death with a massive ‘Exclusive’ headline over the image.

Photos of Michaela’s injuries and other images of the crime scene were published including the hotel room and the bathroom.

The paper has defended its right to print, claiming the public in Mauritius ‘deserve to know’ what the murder scene looked like. It has yet to say how the photos were obtained.

The McAreavey and Harte families have condemned the photos while the Irish government is to take up the incident with the Mauritius authorities.

In a statement, the families said: “As the families struggle to come to terms with the result from the trial - this action by the newspaper is not only insensitive to their grief but marks another low in the treatment of John, the two families and the dignity of Michaela.”

Ireland’s ambassador to Mauritius has been called to a meeting in Dublin with Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore to discuss a formal complaint to the government in Mauritius.

Prime Minister Enda Kenny has condemned the publication of the photos.

Kenny said: “The publication of these images represents an appalling invasion of privacy and is a gross affront to human dignity. There are issues of fundamental human rights in question in relation to this deeply upsetting matter.

“This reprehensible act can only add to the pain and suffering of the McAreavey and Harte families and our thoughts and sympathies are again with them at this time.

“On behalf of the people of Ireland, the Government will be lodging a formal complaint in the strongest possible terms, with the Government of Mauritius.”

Speaking on the This Week programme on RTÉ Radio earlier, Ireland’s Jobs and Enterprise Minister Richard Bruton said that he was ‘appalled’ by the actions of the newspaper.

He told state broadcaster RTE: “I know the desolation that this family has been through and I think this is beyond all realms of legitimate public interest to be fundamentally invading the human rights of this family.

“I’ve spoken to the Taoiseach (prime minister) before I came on air and he’s equally just flabbergasted and flattened here. The government will be assessing what action we can take to seek to protect the family.

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40 Comments

15 - 40 | See all comments

GregShox | Jul 18, 2012, 05:06 PM EDT
Thank you for another highly relevant contribution to the discussion about the Mauritian newspaper report. In more recent news, the editor of the Mauritian Sunday Times has been arrested by Mauritian authorities, though obviously that information won't be of interest to xenophobes or racists.

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jacersagain | Jul 18, 2012, 12:23 AM EDT
Nope.. the gremlins are at work again... sirry Greg, catch you and yr arguments another time

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jacersagain | Jul 17, 2012, 11:06 PM EDT
Ah well now Greg… you and I know, and every Catholic - of the Roman, Greek, Eastern Orthodox, Russian, Coptic, Chinese, American, of the Messianic Jews and of the many other Catholic Church persuasion - already know that mysterious miracle which happens in the consecration of the bread and wine into the substance of the Living Body of your Christ, the Holy Eucharist, by the blessing wave of the hands of a consecrated priest of each those member Churches of the Body of Christ. It’s nice to see you challenge it. It means you’re already on the search for truth that is there to be found. Good luck and God bless t’ya on your journey. I can promise you this much: if ye thought the beautiful landscape of Ireland was beautiful to behold, you’re dead right. If you have the means and the time to launch yrself on yr obstreperous questioning, then be prepared to get out of yr armchair. Such a journey is going to be rewarded by much more beauty… of land, sea, mountain and the love of your Christ (which you don't ask for< or seek, so it would seem (Whack! pardon me unintentional stuff!). May I suggest some places for you to start? Without your permission I will bother me barmy to tell you as others bothered their barmiest to tell me where to send my barmy. (More...)

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jacersagain | Jul 17, 2012, 11:02 PM EDT
Yep, I agree Greg… there are gremlins at work in the ICentral beating heart. You only hafta click on the bits on the right: “Most Commented, Most Read and Most Emailed” to see how the Gremlins work. All sent virtually oof scren. (Pardon the mispeelings). Anyways Greg, I’m gonna come back atcha strongly on yr last few posts, if you’ll pardon me that. Your wimpish replies demand honest strong challenges. So pls bear w/me and give us readers yr actual life truthful responses. I’ll read them tomorrow, if I’m alive. (All my comments following)

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GregShox | Jul 17, 2012, 08:59 PM EDT
Looks like the moderators are getting mixed up here. Very strange name-changing going on.

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GregShox | Jul 17, 2012, 08:52 PM EDT
There are no Mauritian asylum-seekers in Ireland, a mhaicín. Educate yourself, a phlaidhce mór.

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jacersagain | Jul 17, 2012, 08:43 PM EDT
The dervilishly devilish Gremlins are at work again in the Irish Central computers… I did not post the post shown at 01.53pm EDT yesterday (17th July). Methinks it was Greg who shudda been credited with that… >>> For what it’s worth, my comment would be that Greg is the shockie racist one. Neither myself, who’s not afraid to speak out against foreigners from any land idling in my country and sucking up my tax-payer’s contributions, as opposed to those whom we Irish genuinely adopt as asylum seekers, nor evergreen Georgie Dillon Boy (Wou’nee) would ever stoop so low as to post that comment. We Irish know the difference between debaters and de baiters. Sea, sin an fhírinne.

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GregShox | Jul 17, 2012, 08:12 PM EDT
As opposed to the perfectly sensible Catholic belief that a priest waving his hands at a biscuit turns it into the body of a man who died 2000 years ago? What does any of this religious nonsense have to do with the murder of Michaela McAreavey?

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jacersagain | Jul 17, 2012, 08:08 PM EDT
(“final “more”) As a Catholic, I would never wish the fireworks of injustice on anyone anymore than I would wish the pain of never again seeing the glory of God upon an unrepentant sinner. I’m an amateur photographer. I certainly would not photograph the pain of anyone’s suffering, in this life or our next and final one. Let justice be delivered under this case. (Yes, I know there are many other injustices… but we Catholics know when to call a spade a spade in both low- and high-profile cases (OJ Simpson, anyone?). Owning up is the only penitence every sinner will have to eventually serve before God. As the saints advise us all, it is better for our human sanity that the sinner owns up before the people for the sin too. I hope the Mauritian killer(s) of Michaela does, for his/their own sanity and that of his family, for surely, they know too.)

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jacersagain | Jul 17, 2012, 07:59 PM EDT
(…more) Similarly, Hindu believers believe in nothing but of drifting through life because they are going to come from being dogs, cats, monkeys, elephants or cows etc., to being human enough to really face their God: they believe they don’t have a choice because their God is going to re-incarnate them to do and be better than they were in their previous life, over and over again, perhaps turning them from human beings back to being dogs, elephants or monkeys etc over again until their ‘God’ thinks it has got it right enough for them to answer up before its holy presence; in other words, they believe that they have nothing to answer to or for and that they have no responsibility whatever, even in criminal events... life will go on and on until righted by their God. So, leaving the definitive, end-of-human-life beliefs of Catholics and other Christians in eternal soul-life with God or the excruciating real h*ll of its absence in my fellow (Mauritian) Catholics and Christians aside, you already find you have a huge set of false beliefs existing in Mauritius, the perfect setting for where no one is to blame, the only island - in the world - where the now-extinct dodo ‘bird’ was found and killed off in the same set of beliefs. (more…)

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jacersagain | Jul 17, 2012, 07:43 PM EDT
(…more) Before I do tell more, let’s take note of some statistics about the people of Mauritius: They are mostly Hindu (Asian-Indian), one-third of the population is Catholic (most French-Catholic, with some Asian-Indian Catholics with them), a few are Muslim and fewer are Buddhist (some of which Buddhists are also Catholics) with sprinklings of other invaders like the Chinese. I have to go back and tell you of my experiences of working with diverse people in foreign lands. I know, from enormous business and personal experience, that most Muslims believe it is totally “ok” to tell a lie; after all, Allah decides it’s “ok” for them to tell a lie, it’s Allah’s “will” whatever they decide in life (even to teaching their children that it’s ok to behead who they believe is one who doesn’t believe in what they believe). (...more)

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jacersagain | Jul 17, 2012, 07:37 PM EDT
(…more ) It has to be remembered that recently in Sth Africa, relatively nearby to Mauritius where the Mauritians would have read about this news, just a couple of fresh years ago, a honeymooning newly-married man was accused of having his new wife murdered by some other people while on honeymoon (that case is still under investigation). That case must surely have been in the minds of everybody in Mauritius - but John McAreavey was clearly evidenced to not have had any involvement despite the fact that he was the one who discovered his new wife dead in their honeymoon suite. He was after all, witnessed to be quietly (and as it turned out in evidence) to have been waiting for his new wife to come back to their table with tea biscuits. Yet the defendant lawyers made a meal of it, to no avail, that he was *wow!* the one to discover his new bride dead - a sheer attempt at deflection of justice that was rightly dismissed. Now I have to tell you (more…)

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jacersagain | Jul 17, 2012, 07:32 PM EDT
(…more) D'ya know what? I refused to read and follow the trial as presented in the news, particularly by Irish newspapers, firstly because the tragic event itself was so horrific in my mind that I didn’t want to know the details. Secondly, I was afraid that reading an Irish interpretation of evidence given during the trial would influence me such that I would already believe the two suspects were guilty before a jury of their own peer citizens made a decision. I did however note allegations that certain doubtful practices had been used by investigating police officers before the trial and by the prosecuting and defendant lawyers during the trial. It all made for a big mush-mash of justice being delivered under the widely-respected Mauritian, modern-day British-based justice system. And so it turned out to be. Why the hullaballoo about Police Officers from Sth Ireland going to Mauritius is going on I don’t know… Mr & Mrs McAreavey were atb time of honeymoon (like it or lump it) British citizens of Nth Ireland, possibly carrying Irish Passports to which they were entitled to. So why hasn’t the Govt of the UK offered to send intrepid Nth Ireland or Scotland Yard investigative officers to Mauritius to help find the truth? (more…)

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jacersagain | Jul 17, 2012, 07:24 PM EDT
(…more) On a human level, it is an incredibly horrifically sad and unbelievably sordid affair (says me, reaching an internet-touching hand to the heart of John McAreavey, his family and his wife’s family), involving speculative thieves spotting hotel guests out of their room, engrossed in enjoying each other’s honeymooning company and chancing on that absence to pick up “pittance treasure”. Pittance treasure means lots to poorly-paid people. What many people may not realise is that the justice system in Mauritius is primarily based on the British common law system, as is Ireland’s and most of the USA’s. It was Britain which eventually relinquished control of Mauritius in the late 1960s and allowed it become an independent state, a republic (look up the definition of ‘republic’), which actually chose to remain part of the British Commonwealth. According to most observers of Mauritius since independence, the justice system there is well known for fairness and deliverance of proper justice and known as one of the least corrupt “Africa” associated countries. (Easy to do and control if you have a population less tha Dublin City, or is it??)(More…)

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jacersagain | Jul 17, 2012, 07:19 PM EDT
(In posting this following long, split-up post, let me state straight off that I am a native-born Irishman who has travelled a lot, worked in different foreign countries with diverse peoples of different countries and religions. I have never been to Mauritius and I live today Ireland.) In what is becoming a sickening saga, the story of the murder of our fellow human being, Michaela McAreavey, its aftermath of arrest, interrogation and trial of two suspects, followed by gleeful backslapping outside the Court and later celebrations with fireworks of the declaration of innocence and acquittal of the two suspects by the jury, followed yet again with the pathological publication of photographs of the dead body of Mrs McAreavey and the crime scene, it is no wonder that there is outrage in Ireland and elsewhere over the goings-on. (More…)

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