Left, Sean Terry; Right, Stefan Pokorny

While completing the final leg of a round-the-world trip, Sean Terry mysteriously disappeared while sailing between the Maldives and Madagascar. Foul play is suspected and the only other person who was on board at the time, an Austrian scuba diving instructor, has been arrested.

The 48-year Brit, formerly of Cape Town, was on the home-leg of his circumnavigation of the globe when he disappeared from his yacht, Finnegan. Terry was travelling with Stefan Pokorny at the time, an Austrian scuba diving instructor he had picked up in Sri Lanka. The pair had set sail from the Maldives on 14 June accompanied by Italian yacht Alice. Four days later Alice lost radio contact with Finnegan after rough winds caused them to change course. On 25 June, 11 days after the initial departure, the Finnegan arrived in Coetivy, off Seychelles, helmed by Pokorny with no sign of Terry.

According to a spokesman for Terry’s family, Pokorny claimed that Terry had jumped overboard in a fit of rage. However, police later found that the yacht’s “man overboard” button was never pushed and there was no evidence to suggest that Pokorny had gone to much, if any, effort to help him .

Prior to his disappearance, Terry had been in contact with his family in Cape Town and expressed his excitement at re-joining them and had made no mention of anything that would drive him to such extremes.

Judith Middleton, a spokeswoman for the family said the following yesterday,

“Sean had given no indication of wanting to commit suicide at all

“Indeed, he had recently sent emails to his family in which he talked about how much he was looking forward to meeting up with them soon.

“Sean’s family are in turmoil. They simply don’t believe that he committed suicide, nor can they understand why Pokorny didn’t do more to help.

“It appears that little if anything was done to attempt to save Sean and we cannot understand this.

 “After all, this man is meant to be a highly experienced diver. Why on earth did he not try dive in and rescue Sean? Or at least do more to get help.”

“We can confirm that a man is being held in custody but the case is still open and all possible explanations are being investigated by the Seychelles Police regarding the disappearance of Sean Terry,” said a spokesman for the Seychelles’ Attorney General.