Ben Mullany

Ben Mullany (1977-2008) was a doctor who was tragically murdered with his wife, Catherine, during their honeymoon in Antigua. Ben Mullany was from Ystalyfera, a village in south Wales. He was training to become a physiotherapist and was in his third year at the University of the West England (UWE) in Bristol. On June 12, 2008, Ben Mullany married Catherine Bowen, a pedeatrician from the Pontardawe area in South Wales, at St John the Evangelist Church in Cilybebyll. Two days after the marriage, the couple checked into Antigua’s exclusive Cocos Hotel on July 14. The couple were seen enjoying the resort and talking eagerly of going home to start a family. The night before they were to return home to Pontardawe, South Wales, only two weeks after their wedding, the couple were fatally shot in their cottage in what was thought to be a botched robbery attempt. Police believe that Ben, ex-soldier and former rugby player, fought valiantly to protect his new wife during the 20 minute ordeal as he suffered a broken leg and showed signs of being beaten before he was shot. His wife, Catherine, was shot in the head and died instantly. Ben suffered a gunshot wound to the neck. He was found on his honeymoon bed, the sheets soaked with blood, as his wife lay dead on the floor. Though he was able to signal and murmur to the paramedics, on the way to the hospital he lapsed into a coma. Doctors from the Antigua hospital that Ben was rushed to indicated that the bullet had traveled up his neck and into his head causing a blockage of blood flow to the brain and severe hemmoraging. Speculation arose that he was brain-dead and would never recover. Ben's parent's, Marilyn and Cynlais, who flew to Antigua with Catherine's parents, decided to fly him to Wales via air ambulance in a last-ditch attempt to save his life. The plane made scheduled refuelling stops at Wilmington in New Jersey, then at Montreal, before flying on to Goose Bay military airport in Canada, where the jet was dramatically grounded because of a fault. Ben and the team keeping him alive waited at remote Goose Bay for eight agonising hours as another Learjet35 ambulance was scrambled. All the while, medics constantly had to treat Ben to keep him alive. When the mission finally made it into the air after refuelling they flew to Keflavik in Iceland. The plane arrived at Cardiff International and Ben was taken to Morriston Hospital, Swansea where his murdered wife, Catherine, worked. On August 3, 2008, exactly one week after his wife died, Ben Mullany died. A spokeswoman at Swansea’s Morriston Hospital said: “Following brain stem testing today, Ben Mullany has now passed away.” His life support machines were turned off after doctors told his parents that there was no chance of recovery. Ben and Catherine's devastated parents now face the heartbreaking task of planning a joint funeral for the couple. They are expected to lie side-by-side in the very church that they were married in and will be buried together. Tributes have poured in for the murdered couple. Ben's colleagues and friends remember him as caring, compassionate, and hard-working among other things. Most poignantly of all, he is remembered as being "very much in love."

The news of the couple's murder has shocked Britain as over 100,000 British tourists visit Antigua each year. Most are unaware that the island's murder rate is ten times that of New York City's. Catherine and Ben are the 10th and 11th persons to be murdered there this year. Police have arrested many suspects including a Clarence James, "Cloud", who is believed to have taken the couple on a tour before they were shot. Police believe that the couple was targeted because they were both doctors from Britain.