Thursday, July 31, 2008

Victim of Antiqua Honeymoon Shooting Lying Brain Dead in Hospital


Ben Mullany, 31, is lying in a coma unaware that his wife of just two weeks, Catherine, was shot dead in the same attack.

The couple were on the last night of their two week holiday when intruders broke into their secluded cottage at the Cocos Hotel on the idyllic Caribbean island.

Mr Mullany was shot in the neck and as his doctor wife called for help, she was shot in the head and killed outright.

More than £60,000 reward was offered for information leading to the conviction of Mrs Mullany’s killer.





Police Commissioner Gary Nelson, a former Canadian police officer, said the reward was made up of £46,500 from Antigua’s hotel and tourism association, while an anonymous businessman offered another £18,000.

“This suspect, this person that’s committing these terrible crimes - they have to have a girlfriend or boyfriend who knows something, and I call out for them to help us,” he said.

“A tourist being murdered is a high priority, anybody being murdered is a high priority. We’ve got to get this under control ourselves.”

Among the six people questioned over the attack which took place on Sunday morning are two security guards who worked at the hotel.

One of them was supposed to be patrolling a path directly outside the Mullanys' cottage and both are still in police custody.





Dr Mullany's parents, Dai and Rachel Bowen, flew from Swansea in South Wales to Antigua with Mr Mullany's parents, Cynlais and Marilyn.

They have visited their son at Holberton Hospital several times, but are expected to make the painful decision to turn off the life support machine after his condition worsened.

Surgeon Dr Fidel Fernandez said Mr Mullany had not responded to treatment after a bullet lodged in his brain.

Despite speculation that his parents want to move him to an American hospital by air ambulance, a doctor at the hospital said they had told his parents that there was no point moving him as he is medically brain dead.

Mr Mullany’s brother Adam, 23, was thought to be arriving on the island to be with his parents.

In Wales, one of his former teachers and close family friend, Phil Davies, said it was a heartbreaking decision: "I feel desperately sorry for Ben's parents. What a choice to have to make. They have a very talented son, a very popular boy, very likable and loved by everyone.

"They were newly-weds just starting their life together and now they've got to go out there and make a decision to switch the machine off.





"I wouldn't like to be in their position. As a parent of two girls myself I can't imagine what they must be going through."

Mrs Mullany’s brother, Richard, 33, has also flown out to the island to join his parents.

A paramedic called to the scene of the shootings said it was one of the worst emergency calls she had ever handled.

The paramedic, who asked not to be named, said that their crew was called to the hotel at 5.55am on Sunday, about 50 minutes after a guest reported hearing the first shot from the Mullany room.

She said that Mrs Mullany was on the floor of the foot of the bed while her husband was sprawled on the bed.

“Mrs Mullany was lying on the floor on her back at the foot of the bed,” she said. “She was wearing her nightclothes – a vest and trousers – and it was obvious she was dead.

“Her husband was lying on top of the bedsheets. There was so much blood around his head, neck and shoulders. The mosquito net around the bed was soaked in blood, too.”

She went on: “Mr Mullany was conscious and breathing. He was moaning and trying to raise his hand. He opened his eyes and was murmuring something.”

“He responded to my voice and I comforted him as he lay there, and also all the way to the hospital in the ambulance.”

The paramedic described the scene as the “saddest sight I will ever see”, and added: “ I have seen some violent scenes in my time but these people must have been so happy on their honeymoon, and for it to end like this is truly awful.”

Police are continuing to question three men over the attacks but admitted they had no real suspects. They have also yet to find a murder weapon, which is assumed to have been a handgun.

As the investigation continued, there were claims that the couple may have been specifically targeted by intruders.

As the family struggled to come to terms with events, it emerged that another British couple were attacked in one of the £250-a-night cottages near where the honeymooners stayed.






Ian and Joyce Oliver stayed at Cocos Hotel in March last year and were woken by two intruders who stole their passports and valuables before running off.

Mr Oliver, a 51-year-old hotel manager, said: "It was the early hours of the morning when I suddenly saw a torch shining around the room.

"I jumped over my wife towards the man. One was outside the room and another intruder was inside with us.

"They had already managed to take our mobile phones, passports, cameras and other valuables. I ended up on the floor and the men ran off into the night. We were just left in total shock."

Mr Oliver, from Hutton, near Weston-super-Mare, said they never found out what happened to the thieves.

"We were driven to the police station by the hotel manager so we could make a statement, but we don't know if they ever caught the people who were in our room that night," he said.

"I would never go back there after what happened to that poor couple on Sunday.

"It's absolutely terrible."

The Cocos Hotel has received mixed reviews from visitors.

Its English-born owner, Andrew Michelin, said the two security guards were taken in for questioning immediately after the shootings. They were released from custody without charges yesterday.

Although fellow guests heard screams and gunshots from the Mullanys' secluded cottage, the guards are alleged to have called the police only after they were alerted by guests.

Mr Michelin said: "I don't know whether it's suspicious or whether they'd just gone to the bathroom."





It was also possible that they were in police custody to protect them from being intimidated by the men who actually carried out the attack.

He said the hotel had almost finished a four-month project to replace its wire perimeter fence with a five-feet high wooden one, but the stretch next to the Mullanys' cottage had not been completed.

All week, workmen have been hammering new wooden security fences into place in the area around the cottage.

Mr Michelin said the intruder or intruders had got into the Mullanys' one-room cottage by "smashing down" the bathroom door that opens on to a balcony.

Police said yesterday they were no nearer to finding the culprit.

Dr Mullany and her husband - a third year physiotherapy student at the University of the West of England - got married on July 12 and went on honeymoon on July 14.

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