Police fabricated a confession made by one of the two hotel workers accused of murdering Michaela McAreavey in Mauritius and then forced him to sign it, the trial there has heard.
The senior officer who led the investigation also faced allegations he meshed together a non-incriminating statement made by Avinash Treebhoowoon with claims of a suspect-turned-witness before further embellishing the false account.
However, Chief Inspector Luciano Gerard insisted hotel cleaner Mr Treebhoowoon had voluntarily signed his own version of events on 13 January last year - three days after Mrs McAreavey was found dead in her hotel room.
"He gave his statement voluntarily and he voluntarily participated in the reconstruction exercise where there were many press people present at the hotel," Mr Gerard said.
In the statement, Mr Treebhoowoon claims he and co-accused Sandip Moneea murdered Mrs McAreavey when she walked in on them stealing from her room.
Mr Theekoy claimed he heard cries from the room where she was found strangled and then saw Mr Treebhoowoon and Mr Moneea exit.
He was originally charged with conspiracy to murder, but that case has now been dropped and he is set to appear as a prosecution witness next week.
After the confession statement was signed on 13 January the court was told that Mr Treebhoowoon met his father in the police station and was recorded as saying: "Forget about your son now. I have made a mistake."
However, defence for Mr Treebhoowoon insisted that his client said 'Don't forget about your son' and the mistake he was referring to was a decision to move out of the family home weeks earlier after an argument.
