Burmese Pirates have murdered a British yachtsman on board his yacht off southern Thailand, while his wife was locked in a cabin.

News reports today are claiming that the body of Malcolm Robertson (64) was thrown overboard near Koh Dong – an island west of the Satun province near the border with Malaysia – on Monday evening (23 March). It has been suggested that he was beaten to death with a hammer or had his throat slit with a knife.

Apparently, Mr Robertson had tried to stop the three men as they climbed on to his yacht to steal a dinghy, while his wife Linda was locked in a cabin. When she emerged, she found blood on the deck but no sign of her husband. She waved down a passing vessel and called police. She is reported to have said: “They wanted the dinghy and started hitting Malc about the head.”

Police have since caught the men, who were afloat in the stolen dinghy. A police spokesman said they were migrant workers and had confessed to the murder. It is possible they belong to the Rohingya people – an ethnic Muslim group persecuted by the Burmese junta.