Humble home is a shrine to dead son, Gregory Fernandes (From Daily Echo)

Humble home is a shrine to dead son, Gregory Fernandes

12:50pm Wednesday 25th February 2009 in Search

A HAMPSHIRE clergyman has described the devastating impact that the death of a foreign sailor has had on his impoverished family in India.

David Potterton, principal chaplain at the Sailors’ Society in Southampton, flew to Goa last summer to visit the parents of merchant seaman Gregory Fernandes.

The 32-year-old had gone to sea to provide for the couple, who are both retired.

Mr Potterton said: “They live in a bungalow with walls and floors made of dung. They wanted to live in a brick built property and Greg was planning to rebuild it.

“That was the next thing he was going to do.”

Mr Fernandes died of heart failure after twice being targeted by a group of youths in Fawley.

Winchester Crown Court heard that he was literally scared to death in the racist attack. Three teenagers denied murder but admitted manslaughter and will be sentenced next month.

Mr Potterton said the seafarer’s parents were still in a state of shock.

He added: “There are ports around the world where visiting sailors have always been vulnerable but that wasn’t the case with Fawley and what happened to Greg remains unthinkable.

“When I was there his mother never took his photograph away from her chest. She thought the British should be grateful that he worked on a tanker that brought fuel to the UK.” Mr Potterton said the property occupied by Mr Fernandes’s parents had become a shrine to their son.

Fawley residents are still coming to terms with the events of October 20 2007.

Mike Cooper, a former police officer, said: “We like to think of ourselves as a village community and were dismayed when it occurred.

“We often notice sailors coming up from the refinery for a brief respite before returning to their vessel and it’s nice to see them.

“Some of them come from very poor backgrounds and going to sea is often the only way their families back home can get any money.”

Mr Fernandes was serving aboard The Garonne when it docked at the refinery. He and a crewmate, Vinod Pithilna-viram, went for a soft drink at the Falcon Hotel, Fawley, and were walking back to their ship when they were attacked.

The three teenagers who admitted manslaughter were Chay Fields, 16, of Priest Croft Drive, Blackfield, Stephen Pritchard, 18, of Cathay Gardens, Dibden, and Daniel Rogers, 18, of Falcon Fields, Fawley. Two other youths, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted inflicting GBH on Mr Pithilnaviram but denied committing GBH with intent and violent disorder.