Dead diver's colleague a drug smuggler, inquest told

By NAOMI LARKIN

The British colleague of New Zealand diver Aaron Hopa was a known heroin user and drug smuggler who died after he was garrotted.

Mr Hopa, a diving engineer from Geraldine in the South Island, and British diver, Robert Glazzard were thought to have drowned after mysteriously falling overboard from a ship in the Middle East in January last year.

But a coroner's inquest in Bury, Britain, has revealed this week that Mr Glazzard was garrotted.

Both men were dead before they hit the water, the inquest was told.

Associates of Mr Glazzard, including his girlfriend, told the inquest that he took heroin and smuggled cannabis from Malaysia to his home in Singapore.

Mr Hopa and Mr Glazzard, both aged 28, were working for Oceaneering International on the oil survey freighter Sea Bulk Hercules, heading for Dubai, when they disappeared.

They were seen drinking coffee and listening to music on the deck but had vanished when the ship docked six hours later.

When their bodies were recovered two weeks later near the Fath oil field, 53 nautical miles from Port Rashid, in Dubai, local authorities thought they had drowned.

New Zealand and British police convinced the Dubai authorities that the two men had been murdered and to reopen the case.

Mr Hopa's father, Jim Hopa, who was in Bury for the inquest, told OneNews that the claims about Mr Glazzard's drug abuse had created "a lot of difficulty."

"The sad thing about it is that they cannot be refuted because we're not in an environment to do that and, of course, Robert is not here to defend it."

Mr Hopa sen, a policeman from Geraldine, said he was not worried about what might come out at his son's inquest.

"We'll just take it on the chin."

Mr Glazzard's 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."

She said she began taking drugs with him and soon realised he was becoming increasingly dependent.

In a statement read to the coroner, a maritime engineer in Singapore claimed that Mr Glazzard told him he smuggled "grass" regularly across the border.

But Paul Elliott of Dunedin, who worked for Oceaneering International, told the Herald it would be unusual for divers to take drugs while working at sea.

"It's much more difficult at sea simply because companies generally have some sort of check on drug and alcohol use, and also for the Customs implications.

"When you sail on a ship you have to clear the border somewhere and ... you just don't put anything at risk."