Duo to stand trial over honeymoon murders

The two men charged with the murders of British honeymooners Ben and Catherine Mullany in Antigua will stand trial over the killings, a judge ruled yesterday.

Kaniel Martin, 22, and Avie Howell, 18, will appear in court after a judge on the Caribbean island ruled there was enough evidence for the hearings to go ahead.

The Mullanys, from Swansea, South Wales, both died after being shot at the Cocos Hotel and Resort on 27 July last year – the final day of their honeymoon – in what is believed to have been a botched robbery at their isolated cottage.

Mrs Mullany, 31, a newly qualified doctor, was killed instantly while her husband of two weeks, also aged 31, died on 4 August at Morriston hospital in Swansea, after being flown home in a coma.

Martin and Howell, who are both unemployed, also face further murder charges after a Scotland Yard forensics team, which was sent to help the troubled Antiguan force after the killings, found evidence linking the Mullany murders with another three unsolved killings on the island.

The British detectives were drafted in to help an underfunded local force, and to try and retain the confidence of the estimated 100,000 Britons who visit the island each year.