A FORMER newspaper editor has apologised for publishing graphic images of the body of Irish woman Michaela McAreavey following her murder.
Michaela McAreavey, 27 and originally from County Tyrone, was strangled in her hotel room at the Legends Hotel in Mauritius in January 2011, 12 days after her wedding.
In 2012, two hotel workers were acquitted of her murder after an eight-week trial, the longest in Mauritian legal history.
Michaela McAreavey was murdered while on honeymoon in Mauritius in 2011. (Picture: Archive)On July 15 2012, three days after the trial ended, The Sunday Times in Mauritius - which is not linked to the British and Irish publication of the same name - published a dozen graphic pictures showing the crime scene, Mrs McAreavey's body and her injuries.
The then editor, Imraan Hosany, was found guilty of "outraging morality" in a court in Port Louis in May 2013.
However the Harte and McAreavey families launched civil proceedings against Imraan Hosany and the Mauritius Sunday Times in a separate case related to the photographs.
According to the BBC, Imraan Hosany, who no longer works for the paper, has issued a public apology published by the paper on Sunday.
He said he sincerely regrets publishing the photos and said he had not meant to "hurt or bring into disrepute the unblemished name and personality of the McAreavey family."
Mr Hosany said the primary purpose of the photos was to "highlight the cruelty and cowardice" of the perpetrators.
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