I fear justice will not be done, says widow of Briton in yacht murder

thrown overboard and left to drown. A pathologist later gave the cause of death as “asphyxia secondary to blunt force trauma”.

The Royal St Lucia Police Force quickly arrested four young men – Richie Kern, Fanis Joseph, Jermoine Jones, and Kervin Devaux – and extracted confessions from them.

Mrs Pratt left the island in early 2014 and as the months passed, there were few updates from St Lucian authorities about progress in the case.

In May 2015, Mrs Pratt had a disturbing conversation with Victoria Charles-Clarke, the then director of public prosecutions (DPP) in St Lucia.

The prosecutor told her that DNA evidence in the case had become contaminated and could not be used. But she assured Mrs Pratt that prosecutors still had the confessions Roger Pratt, above, and his wife Margaret, below, set off on the voyage of a lifetime on their yacht Magnetic Attraction in June 2013 the four men had made and were confident of a conviction.

Mrs Charles-Clarke has since stepped down as DPP and did not respond to requests for comment.

The second pillar of the case appeared to begin crumbling this summer when Alberton Richelieu, one of the defence lawyers, challenged the validity of the confession given by his client Jermoine Jones.

None of the men had been assigned lawyers at the time they confessed and Mr Richelieu argued that was a violation of St Lucian law.

Both sides are now waiting for a judge to rule on the admissibility of the confessions. Stephen Brett, the current director of public prosecutions, said he could not comment on the ongoing case.

Mr Brett has not spoken to Mrs Pratt about the case. St Lucia’s Ministry of Home Affairs did not respond to a request for comment.

Even if the confessions are struck down by the court, the prosecution is believed to still have some forensic evidence from the scene, including a bite mark on one of the men that matches Mrs Pratt’s teeth.

The murder trial was due to start next month but Mrs Pratt expects it will be pushed back until at least 2017.

She said: “I’m left with the feeling that the government is just not able to deliver a reliable system of justice either to its own population or to the many tourists who visit each year. My fear is that due to bungles in the process four accused people will walk free and I have had no explanation of what is happening. I’m fighting solo battles on this.”