Boyfriend of missing Brit Sarm Heslop who disappeared off yacht in US Virgin Islands hires Ghislaine Maxwell’s attorney
THE boyfriend of a missing Brit who disappeared off a yacht in the US Virgin Islands has hired Ghislaine Maxwell’s attorney.
Ryan Bane, from the US, choose Maxwell’s Virgin Islands-based attorney David Cattie to represent him following the launch of the FBI investigation after Brit Sarm Heslop vanished.
The move suggests that Bane, a charter boat skipper, could be preparing for a legal case over his girlfriend’s disappearance on March 8.
The search for Sarm is a missing person enquiry, not a criminal probe.
Bane is not a person of interest or a suspect in Heslop’s disappearance however the 44-year-old has drawn attention for failing to cooperate with authorities – earlier this week not allowing police to search his 47-foot catamaran.
And the Daily Mail has today reported authorities are not sure where he is after he was last seen on Wednesday as it was revealed he had hired a lawyer.
A spokesperson for the Virgin Island’s police department said in a statement Friday: “Soon after reporting Heslop missing, Bane acquired the services of an attorney.
“Upon his attorney’s advice, Bane exercised his constitutional right to remain silent and denied officers’ requests to search the vessel.”
Cattie has represented Maxwell, who has pleaded not guilty, in her lawsuit against Epstein’s estate to pay for her legal fees.
He has also previously represented another boat captain who was accused of manslaughter but was later acquitted in 2019.
The developments come after Sarm Heslop, 41, vanished from the £500,000 Siren Song in the middle of the night on March 8.
The couple had just returned from dinner at the 420 to Center diner and bar in Cruz Bay on the island of St John.
Bane said he woke at 2am to find Sarm gone and could find no trace of her before calling cops half an hour later.
Cattie said that his client immediately called 911 when he realised his girlfriend was missing at around 2.30am.
“Later that morning, the US Coast Guard came to Bane’s vessel (Siren Song) at Bane’s request,” Mr Cattie told Fox News.
“Multiple USCG officers boarded the vessel and interviewed Mr. Bane on the vessel.
“Mr. Bane, at the request of Sarm’s family, then turned over her personal belongings to [Virgin Islands Police Department], including her cell phone, iPad, passport, etc.”
He then met with police officers to give a statement regarding Sarm, where he said she might have fallen overboard in the night.
Divers have joined a huge search for Sarm, who is originally from Hertford, with the local community rallying together to help.
SEARCH DRAGS ON
Andrew Baldwin, a friend of Sarm, said it was “incredibly difficult” to believe she fell off the boat.
“It’s been eight days since Sarm disappeared,” Baldwin told Fox News.
“Eight days in, they could’ve found anything on the boat.”
Today, authorities admitted to the DailyMail.com that Bane “could be anywhere” after his yacht disappeared on Thursday morning in Frank Bay.
He was last spotted on Wednesday returning to his yacht after taking a dinghy to shore.
Tony Derima, a spokesman for the Virgin Islands Police Department said: “I don’t know if we are keeping tabs on him or anything like that because, since we never spoke to him, we never had a chance to tell him that he couldn’t leave or his movements were restricted or anything like that.
“He’s free to go about as he pleases. He could be anywhere.”
The skipper met experienced sailor Sarm on Tinder in Grenada last year before she went to work at a call centre in Malta.
They conducted a long-distance relationship and then joined her boyfriend to work as a chef on the Siren Song a few weeks before she vanished.
The pal said Bane had relationships with two previous girlfriends who joined him on the boat but they did not work out.
The pal said if Sarm fell overboard in the early hours of March 8 then powerful rip currents could have carried her out to treacherous deep water in minutes.
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The Sun revealed Bane was jailed for viciously attacking his ex-wife Corie Stevenson, 43, in 2011.
A police report alleged Bane threw Corie to the floor, smashing her head against it, after the couple returned to their home in Lake Orion, near Detroit, from a party.
Bane was jailed for 21 days for domestic assault and given another 31 days for probation violation in 2013.