Pensioner 'murdered while selling boat'

13 April 2012

A widower found dead on a beach with two plastic bags over his head was murdered while selling his boat, a court heard today.

Robert Saint, 70, known as Captain Bob to his friends, disappeared after meeting train conductor David MacBride at a marina near Chichester to finalise the sale of his rare 42ft motor cruiser, Sundowner.

Mr Saint's son Glen raised the alarm when the pensioner failed to return to his home in Steyning, West Sussex, on September 26 last year, Lewes Crown Court heard.

The Sundowner was moored later that day by MacBride at nearby Itchenor.

The vessel, for which MacBride claimed he had given Mr Saint £119,000, was then searched by police. Blood spots were found in the engine room and in the galley which matched Mr Saint's DNA profile.

On September 30, a day tripper on the Isle of Wight found a wallet, later identified as Mr Saint's.

And on October 9, a fossil hunter spotted a body on Sandown Beach on the Isle of Wight.

It was clothed only in black boxer shorts and socks. Two Tesco carrier bags were tied over the man's head and a yellow diver's knife was round one wrist.

The body was later identified as that of Mr Saint, whose wife Pamela died a year before his alleged murder.

MacBride, 44, of Bramber Close, Bognor Regis, a conductor with South Central Railways, denies murdering Mr Saint.

Camden Pratt, prosecuting, said it was the Crown's case that Mr Saint may
already have been dead when the Sundowner was seen reversing from its mooring at Birdham Pool Marina, with MacBride at the controls, on September 26.

The boat was seen to knock into the side of a lock gate as it left the marina. Mr Pratt said had Mr Saint been alive, he would have been on deck to help steer the vessel, but was probably dead or injured below deck.

He went on: "Something prevented Bob Saint from coming on deck to assist. It may be that he was already injured or dead."

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