Foul play suspected in death in Victoria
Just a few hours after the visiting British Royal Navy
frigate HMS Richmond welcomed President Michel and other guests to celebrate
the Queen’s birthday on Friday, one of its crewmembers, a 23 year-old Royal
Navy sailor, was found dead in Victoria.
His body was discovered behind the National Library, at the
ex-children’s playground, by an unknown man at around 6.45am. He then proceeded
to alert the police. The circumstances of the death are as yet unclear but
police spokesperson Jean Toussaint said that they are treating the death as
suspicious.
The man was wearing a light blue shirt and blue jeans at the
time of death. He was barefoot and, puzzlingly, his shoes and socks were placed
next to him. The posture of the body almost suggested that he was asleep, with one
arm on his chest and the other bent at the elbow.
The police also say that there was no “visual” evidence that
foul play was involved but that the sheer unnaturalness of the discovery is
what is making them treat the death as suspicious.
Matthew Harper from
the British High Commission has confirmed that the 23 year-old was serving on
HMS Richmond and said that his family in England had already been notified of
the death.
HMS Richmond is set
to leave Seychelles on Tuesday.
The strange circumstances surrounding the discovery of the
body are reminiscent of the death of two security officers on board the Maersk
Alabama while it was docked in Victoria last year. After a night out in town,
the two men were found dead in their cabin. It was later established that they
had overdosed but the people who last saw them before their death - they spent
the night at the casino in town - were never identified.
Likewise, little is known about where the British sailor
went before his death and who he was with. The police are expected to question
other members of the crew of HMS Richmond to try and retrace the 23 year-old’s
movements before his death.
In the meantime, it
is hoped that the CCTV cameras in town will assist the police in their
investigation. Questions however are being asked about whether the police still
conduct patrols in town in the evening and the early hours of the morning and
whether the patrols should not be more regular, especially on end-of-month
weekends.
Source:Today in Seychelles
