One of the former hotel workers acquitted of the murder of Michaela McAreavey in Mauritius in 2011 has continued to state his innocence in an interview with the BBC.
Speaking to journalist Allison Morris as part of the second episode of new BBC documentary series Murder in Paradise, Sandip Moneea says he was confident he would be acquitted at trial because he ‘did nothing’.
Former Legends Hotel employee Moneea was acquitted along with fellow hotel worker Avinash Treebhoowoon following a high profile trial on the Indian Ocean island in 2012.
READ MORE: Murder in Paradise: John McAreavey opens up on discovery of wife Michaela’s body
Last year, Moneea and a former security guard at the hotel faced charges of conspiring to commit larceny in the hotel room where the schoolteacher was found murdered. The charges were later dropped.
When asked whether he knew what happened to Michaela on the day in question, Moneea says: “It’s difficult for me to say something because really I was not there.”
“I was confident because I knew from the beginning I did nothing.
“I don’t know how it happened to me but it was a difficult time for me.”
The prosecution case during the 2012 trial relied heavily on a confession that Trebhoowoon had made to Mauritian police, which the defence later said was made under duress.
Moneea says in the documentary that he could hear Trebhoowoon being beaten while making the confession.
“It was not his statement,” he says. “I could hear him, how he was shouting. They beat him very well.”
“They force him to have this confession.”
The three-part documentary follows journalists Morris and Darragh McIntyre as they return to the island in the Indian Ocean where the daughter of former Tyrone GAA boss Mickey Harte was strangled to death in her hotel room.
The third and final episode of Murder In Paradise airs on Monday, April 24 at 10.40pm on BBC One NI, with the full series currently available on BBC iPlayer.
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