My Response to Australian Story – “Sea of Doubt”

In 2007, my mate Andy Whitton fell overboard from his yacht during a Pacific crossing from Tahiti toward the Galapagos. There was no evidence of foul play and no charges were ever laid against me. But Australian Story turned it into a character assassination piece full of half-truths, edited interviews, ignored statements (including Kylie Dean’s father’s contradicting evidence), and insinuations. For years I have fought to set the record straight. This page is my full, unfiltered response to what they aired — and what they deliberately left out.

Watch the Original Australian Story Episode

Watch / Read “Sea of Doubt” on ABC (8 February 2016)

Official ABC page – contains the full episode if still available in Australia.

What the Coroner’s Inquest Actually Found

• Inquest found no evidence of foul play, deliberate act, or criminal involvement by anyone.
• Coroner referred the matter to the Commonwealth DPP for consideration of charges.
• DPP reviewed the evidence and declined to lay any charges.
• Galapagos authorities questioned me fully, examined the yacht, and cleared me of wrongdoing.
• I cooperated completely with South American police, navy, and consuls over 10 months — they found nothing suspicious.

What Australian Story Did Wrong

• Treated the disappearance as inherently suspicious despite the coroner’s open finding and lack of evidence for foul play.
• Relied on a vindictive statement from ex-girlfriend Kylie Dean (alleging I said 19 years earlier “the only way I’d get a yacht is to push someone overboard”).
• Ignored her father’s later statement that Kylie’s claim was bitter lies, a witch hunt, and that he had jokingly said it — not me.
• Used inaccurate re-enactments (e.g., ignored Galapagos as the only logical destination with repair facilities; Pitcairn/Rapa Nui had none).
• Edited interviews and witness statements to push a guilty narrative — full context was omitted.
• Never mentioned my immediate reporting to Cuttyhunk and Galapagos authorities — if I was hiding anything, I would never have told the only witnesses.
• Turned a genuine accident into ratings-driven drama with no regard for facts or Andy’s family.

My Original Full Response (Written 2016)

It was very much an Un-Australian Story showing bias, non fact and innuendo whilst focusing on negative account with gaping omissions.

It would be interesting to see full interviews compared to inquest statements, transcript as well as the statements ignored by the coroner such as Kylie Dean’s father which totally contradicts Kylie’s comment of me saying ten years previously (19 years ago now) that “The only way I would get a yacht is to push someone overboard”. The coroner Mary Jerram stated Miss Kylie Dean was a very credible witness but ignored the statement by her own father saying that Kylie was very bitter toward me for breaking up with her and going out with a well known model. He also stated that it was him that had stated this to his daughter jokingly. I was not present. This statement was disregarded by the coroner’s court.

Re-enactments were inaccurate and Galapagos was the only logical choice as Pitcairn and Rapa Nui (Easter) islands have no and very little shelter with no repair facilities. Expert opinion backs my decisions on this.

Andy was gone and I reported his disappearance to the yacht “Cuttyhunk” and then at Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz, Galapagos. If I was trying to cover anything then I would not have told the only yacht I saw about Andy’s disappearance and simply said Andy disappeared after the encounter with the Cutty Hunk. If I never mentioned the disappearance to the Cutty Hunk nor to the authorities on the encounter with the Cutty Hunk then there would have been no witness nor any flack for me making my decisions.

The SSB radio was non-operational due to water damage leaving me with only VHF which only reaches to the horizon. I thought about the yacht Cutty Hunk relaying a message but then thought of my family’s worry. Andy was gone and it was my job to report this. No one else’s. I stand by my decision.

A ten month investigation by Police, Navy and Consuls in South America followed. I was interviewed multiple times and the yacht and equipment were forensically tested. I co-operated completely.

Shortly after I arrived in Puerto Ayora, Galapagos, Louise Witten asked local authorities to remove me from Andy’s yacht. She denied doing this to me and then paid a local caretaker to live on the yacht. It was common knowledge that the young local was a well known thief and equally well known that everything was going missing from the yacht. I formally raised this with local police and Louise.

I advised Andy’s family to have someone come to Galapagos immediately on multiple occasions to dismiss rumours circulating in Australia, to get first hand information and aid in protecting Andy’s possessions. These pleas were ignored.

Andy’s possessions were left on the yacht and I was evicted by local authorities at Louise Witten’s request. I raised concerns about Andy’s possessions going missing to his family and the police. It was ignored until later when it became convenient to blame me.

The shame of the situation is that Andy’s family did not get facts while looking on from the other side of the world with unreasonable suspicion. The result being alienation, misinformation, lost memories of Andy’s last months and Andy’s possessions being stolen off the boat, all because of an unswerving witch-hunt attitude.

Utter garbage statements in the story such as “the boat felt eerie” amount to nothing but sensational trash journalism. I’m surprised they didn’t film a witch doctor to summon any spirits.

Mark Owens stating that I was not coming back to Tahiti is news to me. I always had a return ticket.

Navigation gear was obviously taken by authorities or stolen by the local thief being paid by Andy’s sister to live on the boat. I’m not sure because I had not been on the boat for at least six months. All of Andy’s possessions were there when I was evicted from the vessel by police and prosecutor at Andy’s sister’s wishes. I raised concerns about Andy’s possessions going missing to his family and the police. It was ignored until later when it became convenient to blame me. This was around the time Hamish turned up.

What was said by individuals in the interview was vastly different to what was said at the coronial inquest. It was obviously heavily edited to the biased side. Andy was painted as a saint at the coronial inquest, but in the program it was mentioned about prison in the UK. What about the six months in Kerobokan Prison in Bali where Andy had two suitcases of concealed Buddha sticks they never found? Funny story, shame to leave it out but I guess it was more about a witch hunt for me.

The re-creations of the boat encounter were totally inaccurate and misleading.

The only quote from the coronial inquest was that of Kylie Dean which was proven to be a vindictive lie by her own father’s statement. Why wasn’t this shown in the story? It was filmed and I was assured it would be shown.

Emily Bourke states that the coroner suggested that “I picked up money from Europe and left Tahiti with intentions of a drug deal in South America and somewhere along the way Andy became aware of this and there was an argument”.

Without any evidence whatsoever. This shows two things. The coronial judge had no interest in what really happened, and was a moron. It also shows that the AFP were dictating the coronial inquest.

Did I just walk on with bags of money from Europe to Tahiti on a multiple leg flight – Did I? And did Andy being a scallywag who spent time in prison in Kerobokan and England for drugs remain totally clueless in this whole fictitious plan. And then there is his so called mate, Mark Owens again stating Andy was offered to do a drug importation with strong reference to me. So how was this surprise to him? You say one thing in your crap story, then you contradict yourself.

For Emily Bourke to call me a liar is a personal attack. This interview was done on her deceptiveness and lies. Bravo, you deserve a Logie. It was a vastly different person than the one behind the scenes and when we were alone in Aria’s penthouse. My interview was sincere and if anything, perhaps too honest.