Yachtsman ‘was executed’

Press, 4 January 1980, Page 4

Yachtsman ‘was executed’

NZPA Hong Kong Confirmation that a Whakatane yachtsman. Kerry George Hamill, was executed by the Khmer Rouge regime in Kampuchea in December, 1978, has been received by the NZPA in Hong Kong. An American television correspondent, Jim Laurie, said in an interview in Singapore that he had obtained in Phnom Penh detailed documents indicating the fate of Hamill, who was 27. The confirmation was contained in a second so-called confession written by the New Zealander and one from a Briton, John Dewhurst, who had been captured at the same time. Dewhurst’s - confession document said he had sailed into Kampuchean waters with Hamill and a Canadian, Stuart Glass, on the yacht Foxy Lady on August 13 1978. - It was this yacht, built in Penang, Malaysia, on which Hamill had set out from Singapore in June of that year for a cruise in SouthEast Asian waters.

ment was dated September Hamill’s “confession” docu17. 1978, and contained his thumb-print. It gave an

identification number of 8708 N and in it he said he was a New Zealander, his father’s name was Miles ’f? Hamill, and he was educated at Piedmont College. The document added that he was sailing with two other people. - y The “confession” document of Dewhurst said that the Foxy Lady had reached Kampuchean waters near an island about dusk on August 13, 1978. Shortly after dusk, the yachtsmen heard a motor and a boat closed in on them. A spotlight was shone onto the yacht, and shots fired. - The document said: “Stuart was shot.” The document added that Stuart Glass had been buried at sea before Hamill and Dewhurst were taken ashore. Mr Laurie said there was no indication of what had happened to the yacht. Canadian diplomats are pursuing further details and Interpol has listed on its missing persons file a Canadian who had reportedly been sailing with Hamill. One of the two confessions said the trio had sailed from Kuala Trenganu on the Malaysian east coast on their final voyage on August 7.