a British couple on their honeymoon in the Caribbean island of Antigua were invaded in their detached vacation cabin and shot to death (be sure to see VFR’s
about it). A “robbery gone wrong,” the news media called it, using one of their standard nihilist phrases that deny the existence of evil. (I think that the press services and newspapers give their reporters computers with a dedicated key that types “robbery gone wrong” with a single keystroke.) Now, thanks to help from British police, two suspects have been apprehended. But they will not face the death penalty, since the British made the non-imposition of capital punishment the condition of extending their assistance to the Antiguan authorities in the case. Don’t you just love the precious high-mindedness of it? The British once imposed civilization and the rule of law on less advanced peoples. Now they impose limp-wristed left-liberalism.
Britain bans Antigua from hanging men accused of killing British honeymoon couple
By George Gordon
09th March 2009
The two men accused of killing a British honeymoon couple will not face the death penalty if they are convicted under a deal struck by the British government.
Antigua’s prosecutor said he would not be able to demand the death penalty because British detectives helped bring the men to justice.
A spokesman for the Caribbean island’s Director of Public Prosecutions said: ‘It is unfortunate. It is regrettable—these men deserve the harshest penalty the law can impose for this horrendous crime.
‘But we have given our word and we can’t go back on it.’
The no-hanging deal was struck last July after Dr Catherine Mullany and her physiotherapist husband Ben, both 31, were found murdered in their hotel cottage.
The island’s political leaders realised the investigation was too complex for local police and called in Scotland Yard.
That help was only given on condition the killers would not face the death penalty.
‘The Attorney General agreed to it,’ the DPP spokesman said.
A team of eight officers cracked the case when they discovered that mobile phones belonging to the couple were still being used on the island.
Three women were arrested trying to dispose of goods stolen from Mullany’s bedroom.
Further detective work discovered the alleged murder weapon and forensic evidence linked it to Avie Howel, 18, and Kaniel Martin, 21.
They were formally charged last August, but the British detectives and the Antigua police continued their investigation into a string of similar unsolved crimes in which the victims had died in similar circumstances.
The forensics team, which was sent to the Caribbean island to help the troubled Antiguan force after the killings last summer, found evidence linking the Mullany murders with three other unsolved cases.
Howell and Martin will stand trial over the murders of the British couple later this year and have now also been charged with the murders of Tony Louisa, Rafique Kareem Harris and Juanita Anderson Walker on June 18, July 12 and August 8, 2008 respectively.
The Mullanys, from Swansea, South Wales, were on the final day of their honeymoon when they were the victims of a violent robbery at the Cocos Hotel And Resort on the south-west of the holiday isle on July 27.
Mrs Mullany, 31, a doctor, died instantly in what is believed to have been a botched robbery at their isolated cottage at the beachside resort.
Her husband died in hospital in Swansea after being flown home while in a coma.
Antigua’s acting commissioner of police Thomas Bennett said the charges showed that co-operation between forces worked well in cases such as these.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said he could not comment on the investigation as it was being run by the Antiguan force.
Mr Louisa, a 46-year-old Syrian national, was shot in the head after confronting burglars at his home on the island.
Mr Harris, 24, was found dead about 50 metres away from his aunt’s home on the island. Police believe he was killed during a robbery.
Ms Walker, 43, was shot dead in her home during what police believe was a violent robbery
Howell, of Golden Grove, Antigua, and Martin, of Tindale Road, Antigua, were charged with the three murders last week. Both men remain in custody and will stand trial over the murders of the British honeymooners later this year.
, which is supposed to be more realistic about crime than other papers, is still calling the execution-style double murder of Ben and Catherine Mullany a “botched” robbery, notwithstanding the list of three other victims whom the same perpetrators are suspected of having murdered in other “botched” robberies.