Durban-born Royal Marine Brett Williams spent a week convincing people he was not the Marine killed at Kings Park.
|||Durban - When South African-born British citizen and former Royal Marine Brett Williams, 29, was killed at Durban’s Kings Park Stadium last month, a 37-year-old Durban-born former Royal Marine, also named Brett Williams, spent that week convincing relatives and friends that he was still alive.
While Williams, of England, watched the Sharks Super Rugby match against the Melbourne Rebels, the Durban-born Brett went to a friend’s wedding in Hillcrest, then saw the same match on TV.
When The Mercury quoted the dead Williams’s cousin, Tarryn, in an article, the other Brett’s father, Gwilym, relatives, and friends were convinced that their Brett had died because he, coincidentally, had a sister named Tarryn.
“I received phone calls from London and around the world from friends of Brett. Everyone was worried,” Gwilym said.
“My son phoned me and told me he was safe, but nevertheless I was, and still am, inundated with phone calls.”
Williams, who was working as a maritime safety officer and had been in Durban while his ship was docked, was beaten to death by five men after partying with rugby supporters after the match.
The men charged with the murder are out on bail and will appear in court again in June.
Speaking to The Mercury from his home on an Inanda farm, Brett said he was saddened by the death of Williams, and Royal Marines across the world were outraged.
He said that after newspaper reports, the “BlackBerry messages (BBMs), SMSes and phone calls did not stop.”
Marines and his commanders in England phoned him.
“Please calm down. I am alive. I am alive,” he told them.
Then his father alerted him that, this week, some old friends were planning a memorial service for him.
“I phoned them and asked if I could come too. I joined the marines in 2002 and I assume some of my old friends could not recognise me in the newspaper photos because they had not seen me in a long time.”
The two men shared a love for rugby.
“I always go to Kings Park and watch my rugby,” he said.
He described the attack on Williams as “unfair”, saying even when the men knocked him down “he would have stood up again because that was what he was trained to do”.
The Mercury