British diver 'was garrotted in Gulf'

A British diver thought to have drowned after falling overboard had been garotted, an inquest was told yesterday. Robert Glazzard and his colleague, Aaron Hopa, from New Zealand, went missing from their boat in the Persian Gulf in January last year.

A British diver thought to have drowned after falling overboard had been garotted, an inquest was told yesterday. Robert Glazzard and his colleague, Aaron Hopa, from New Zealand, went missing from their boat in the Persian Gulf in January last year.

When their bodies were recovered two weeks later, the Dubai authorities thought they had drowned, but after their bodies were flown to their home towns post-mortem examinations found the ligature marks.

The men, both 28, were dead before they hit the water, the inquest was told.

Detectives from Mr Glazzard's home in Rochdale flew to Singapore, where he lived, to investigate. They asked the United Arab Emirates to reopen the case and convinced the Dubai authorities that the two men had been murdered.

At Mr Glazzard's inquest in Bury yesterday, his Cantonese girlfriend Roo Ann Tay, said he was a "recreational" drug user, taking heroin and cannabis.

"Around April 1998 I found one of the plastic straws that heroin is kept in. When I asked Robert about it he admitted he took heroin to help him relax. From then on he would smoke cannabis and heroin openly at home." Ms Tay said she began to take drugs with him and soon realised he was becoming increasingly dependent. The hearing continues today.