Newlywed 'Fought For Her Life' Before Murder

A British newlywed shot dead on honeymoon in a luxury Antiguan resort fought for her life before she was executed, a court has heard.

Catherine Mullany, 31, was killed alongside her husband Ben in an apparent botched robbery at the upmarket Cocos hotel little more than a fortnight after their wedding day.

A doctor working for the Caribbean nation's ministry of health, who was called to the murder scene, told jurors Mrs Mullany was lying in a "defensive" stance, as if she had tried to fend off an attack.

Oritta Zacharia told Antigua's High Court: "In my opinion, she appeared to have been in a fight before she would have died."

She added: "The body was rolled so that the back was exposed and she was wearing, at the time, a white pyjama set and on the back of the upper body there was a blood-stained area which was quite extensive.

"On the right side of her head there was a bullet wound. On turning the body, we also discovered a shell close to her feet - a bullet shell, that is."

Ms Zacharia said Mrs Mullany's pyjamas were embroidered with her married name.

Though she identified a bruise on Mrs Mullany's arms, she was unable to say precisely when the injury was inflicted, beyond saying it was "a fresh wound".

The court also heard from Mrs Mullany's brother, Richard Bowen, who identified a picture of his sister "walking my mum and dad's dog Holly in a field near my mum and dad's house in Wales".

Another picture showed his close friend Mr Mullany "trying on a wedding suit".

The Mullanys, from Swansea, south Wales, were on the final day of their honeymoon in the south west of the holiday isle when they were violently attacked.

Mrs Mullany, a doctor, died instantly while her 31-year-old husband, a former South Yorkshire Police officer, who had also served in the British Army, was later flown back to Britain for treatment but was pronounced dead a week after the shootings.

Nearly three years after their deaths on July 27, 2008, Avie Howell, 20, and Kaniel Martin, 23, have gone on trial for their murders.

They are also accused of killing a 43-year-old local shopkeeper.

The pair deny all the charges.