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ITN
Service for murdered honeymooners
Service for murdered honeymooners
A memorial service for murdered honeymooners Ben and Catherine Mullany has taken place. The newlyweds, from Rhos, near Pontardawe, South Wales, were shot on the last day of their honeymoon at the Cocos Hotel and Resort in Antigua on July 27. Mrs Mullany, 31, a doctor, died instantly in what is believed to have been a botched robbery. Her husband, a trainee physiotherapist who was also 31, died in hospital in Swansea after being flown home in a coma. The service at Llandaff Cathedral, Cardiff, was held to allow family, friends and colleagues of the couple to pay their last respects. The Duchess of York, a patron of the Mullany fund set up to support prospective medical students and physiotherapists, read the WB Yeats poem Tread Softly during the service and said it was "very special to her". The Reverend Martyn Perry, Rector of Cilybebyll, who married the Mullanys, conducted the service with Archbishop of Wales Dr Barry Morgan, delivered the sermon. Tributes to the couple were read by family members, friends and former cricketer Sir Viv Richards. Two candles were lit for the Mullanys in the cathedral before the Archbishop's opening prayer. The Archbishop told the congregation: "Today's service is an attempt to express the full range of what we feel, of thanksgiving for lives that were so full of promise and vitality and energy and charm, and yet terrible sadness and at times anger that they have been cut down on the threshold of so much hope." Dr Morgan said "the world is full of chance and accidents", and that tragedies like the Mullanys' deaths were also a "disaster" for God. He added: "If we find what happened to Ben and Catherine in Antigua shocking, why should we think God does not?" The Archbishop told the couple's families that God was helping them with their grief, before commending the couple to God. The duchess then gave her reading, before the congregation sang Welsh love song Myfanwy. Sir Viv, sports and tourism ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda, sent a message of support to the families. The message, read out by Mr Perry, said: "On behalf of the people of Antigua, I would like to offer our heartfelt condolences to the families of Cath and Ben. "As many of you will know, I spent many years playing cricket for Glamorgan and have a strong affinity with Wales and the Welsh people. "I am honoured to support the Mullany fund, set up to help train new doctors and physiotherapists and keep the dreams of Cath and Ben alive." Two men, 20-year-old Kaniel Martin and 17-year-old Avie Howell, are in custody in Antigua charged with the couple's murder, robbery and receiving stolen goods. Francisca Baez De La Cruz, 22, and Ramona Mejia Gervasio, 32, have been charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and receiving stolen goods. A third woman, 31-year-old Jeorgette Aaron, has been charged with perverting the course of justice, accessory after the fact to robbery and accessory after the fact to murder.
ITN | September 10, 2008
