Daily Mail
January 25, 2014
These are the men accused of murdering a retired British businessman during a bungled robbery in St Lucia.
Roger Pratt, 62, was killed and his wife injured when a masked gang ambushed their yacht under darkness last Friday.
Mr Pratt was punched eight times in the face when he fell – or was thrown – into the water unconscious and drowned.
Yesterday afternoon, four men were brought to the courthouse in Vieux Fort in handcuffs.
The suspects, dressed in shorts and t-shirts and in their twenties, tried to cover their faces as they were led out of a police van.
Detectives said the men were known to police for ‘petty crimes’, including theft.
The men are accused of stealing a fishing boat and rowing out to the Warwickshire couple’s £200,000 yacht, where they demanded valuables and cash.
They brutally beat the holidaymakers, but swam away from the scene empty-handed, after seemingly panicking when the robbery turned violent, police said.
Yesterday, the men sat with their heads bowed as the charges of ‘murder and robbery’ were read out in court.
Magistrate Robert Innocent remanded them in custody until next month, when a preliminary hearing will take place.
As they were led from the court, the sister of the one of the suspects screamed at police officers.
‘They are not animals, you cannot treat them like dogs’, urging her brother to ‘put your shirt over your face’ to hide his identity from the television cameras.