A SCOTTISH trawler skipper was looking at WhatsApp when his dredger swamped four friends on a fishing trip, killing three of them, a court heard. The men drowned after David Brooks Marr failed to hear their screams or see their tiny pleasure boat and lights as he steamed straight at them. Mr Marr, 55, from Peterhead was looking at WhatsApp messages on his mobile phone when he should have been keeping a lookout, a jury was told. He was at the helm and unaware of the screams from the group of friends who were on a fishing trip off the Sussex coast when his scallop dredger Vertrouwen steamed straight at them at between seven and 7.5 knots. Fishing vessel Vertrouwen. Three Romanian anglers drowned and one survived by clinging to a buoy before being rescued hours later. In the dock wearing a black polo shirt and using a hearing loop, Mr Marr heard waves from his trawler, owned by fishing giants MacDuff, swamped the tiny pleasure boat approximately 1.5miles off Shoreham near the Rampion wind farm in the early hours of August 6, 2017. All four men on board the 5m long fibreglass boat, James 2, were forced to jump…
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David Brooks Marr was 'sending WhatsApp messages' jury told
