Yacht widow 'happy' at verdicts

Lindy and Malcolm Robertson were sailing near the island of Koh Dong

The widow of a businessman who was murdered on a round-the-world yachting trip has welcomed the 25-year sentences handed to his three Burmese killers.

Lindy Robertson and her husband Malcolm were attacked off Thailand in March.

Mr Robertson, 64, of Hastings, was bludgeoned and thrown overboard, and his wife was kept tied up for 10 hours.

She said: "I was relieved really that they didn't get the death sentence. I think 25 years is justice, and I was happy - as happy as you can be."

Mrs Robertson, 59, said the fact that she was alive led her to believe that her husband's killers had some sympathy, deep down inside.

'Badly missed'

She added: "To this day, I don't know why I'm alive, but I am.

"And so I feel that they had some goodness there, somewhere."

She said she was now trying to cope with life without her husband.

Lindy Robertson said she could move on but would not have closure

"He was such a larger than life character. Everybody adored him.

"It's the realisation you're never going to see him or be in his company again."

She added: "He's just very, very badly missed - and always will be."

Mr Robertson died off the Andaman coast after the pirates boarded his vessel, the Mr Bean.

His wife Lindy was left fearing for her life for several hours before they fled the yacht.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said the killers were sentenced by a Thai court on Thursday.

They were named in reports from Thailand as Eksian Warapon, 19, an 18-year-old known as Aow, and a 17-year-old boy, known as Ko.

The men, who had pleaded guilty, were each sentenced to 25 years in prison at Satun Provincial Court.

The boy, who was convicted of murder, was jailed until he reaches the age of 24.