The brutal murder on board a luxury yacht in Weymouth

Thomas Wilson, 25, had been arrested after the body of second engineer Maxwell Harrison was discovered on board the Aronia, owned by millionaire Jack Billmeir, commodore of the Royal Southampton Yacht Club. It had sailed into Weymouth harbour on September 30, 1959, to be laid up for the winter.

Harrison's corpse was found on the main deck as dawn broke on October 3. His battered face and head were covered with blood, which was also spattered on the companionway and funnel. It transpired he had died because blood from his facial wounds had obstructed his breathing.

Jack Billmeir (Image: Echo)

The previous evening, the steward had visited several pubs in the town before the owner of another vessel invited the captain and crew members of the Ariona, including Wilson and Harrison, aboard for a nightcap.

About 1am the following morning, a group arrived from Kent to board the sailing yacht and, on crossing the deck of the Aronia, saw a recumbent figure and thought it was a crewman asleep.

Wilson was arrested hours later after it was discovered blood on his forehead belonged to the same group as that of Harrison and his bloodstained tie was found on the sea bed.#

When questioned, Wilson, who came from Newcastle, made a statement in which he declared: "I can't remember arguing, but I do recall we had a fight, and that Maxie (Harrison) suggested we should use our heads. I remember we were butting each other with our heads, and the next thing I remember is looking in the mirror in my cabin.

"We were good friends, and I can't understand why we would want to fight. If we had a dispute, it would not have been very much. We have had them before and patched them up. We have never come to blows before, and I can't understand why we should do so now."

Denying murder, Wilson appeared at Hampshire Assizes on December 7 when prosecutor Peter Rawlinson QC told jurors Harrison had suffered eight blows to the head. "The injuries were consistent with him having received several kicks."

Lace holes in Wilson's shoe were found with human skin and blood, and a single fibre caught in one of Harrison's hands was similar to fibres from Wilson's trousers and jacket.

Peter Rawlinson QC (Image: Echo)

"I think you will have little difficulty in accepting the first proposition of the Crown that the accused caused the injuries to the dead man. Killing in the course of a fight could amount to justifiable homicide or to manslaughter, but I suggest the evidence is quite inconsistent with the use of any reasonable force by the accused man in defence of himself."

But in his closing speech, Robert 'Khaki' Hughes submitted: "The best test of friendship is when two people are confined together in a very restricted space. Nothing more would get on anyone's nerves than being at sea in cooped-up quarters. Yet nobody has said these two men were quarrelsome or were enemies, and the testimonial is that they were friendly on board ship."

The prosecution's evidence, he said, had not ruled out the possibility the injuries could have been caused by an accidental fall. The men had been engaged in a rough and tumble, a struggle which had suddenly sprung up and happened in a confined space against which a drunken man could have fallen and received a fractured nose.

Addressing the issue that skin had been found on Wilson's shoe, he implored: "This is a very serious case, and I hope you will not decide it by taking a microscope and examining the shoe in that way. The evidence is balanced either way. The skin could have come on his shoe by hard contact short of kicking or the quick withdrawal of the shoe during the struggle.

"If you are satisfied this man delivered these blows, neither he, nor I can have any complaint if you find him guilty of manslaughter."

Wilson was acquitted of murder but convicted of manslaughter.

Jailing him for three years, Mr Justice Devlin told him: "The whole cause of this case was the drink you had taken. It has saved you from a verdict of murder, but at the same time it leaves a very brutal killing, for which drink is no excuse."