Posted on 2009-04-01

On Tuesday 24th March 2009, Yacht “Mr Bean” was lying to a buoy off the SE side of Koh Adang in the Butang Group (20nm NW of Telaga, Langkawi). At around 00.30 three teenage, illegal immigrants from Myanmar (aged 17, 18 and 19) swam out and climbed aboard, where they attacked the Skipper, 64-year-old Malcolm Robertson, in the bow incapacitating him, then his wife Linda, 57, in the aft cabin. She was trussed with rope.

The three Burmese men said they climbed on to the Robertsons’ yacht because they were starving after fleeing to a nearby island from rough conditions on a Thai fishing vessel.

Malcolm subsequently came round and challenged the attackers, telling them to get off the boat. The eldest of the three reportedly confessed to both Thai police and a British photographer that he killed Robertson with a hammer after a struggle, then lowered the Englishman’s body into the sea.

The attackers eventually came to get Linda to assist in starting the engine. As she went through the saloon she realised that the sticky substance beneath her feet was a large quantity of thick blood. She was returned to the forepeak.

The attackers drove the boat at full throttle for around six hours, probably heading east around the north of Koh Tarutao before anchoring in a bay on a small island about 1nm off the Thai mainland near Langu. There they trashed the boat before leaving at around 10 am in the dinghy with an unreliable 2HP engine. Linda managed to escape, start the engine and get up the anchor before they could paddle back to Mr Bean.

She went to a nearby fishing fleet to get help and when the Taratoa Park Rangers and police arrived they took-off and quickly arrested the attackers. Linda was detained in hospital, very distraught and bruised by hammer blows and bindings. The hammer and knife used in the attack were both from Mr Bean.

After days of searching, the body of Malcolm Robertson was recovered by a fisherman about 10 nautical miles north of Satun’s Lipeh Island at about 3 pm on 31 March.