Oil rig worker ‘pleaded to be moved cabins amid rising tensions’ before he was killed by Scots roommate
A SLAIN oil worker pleaded to be moved cabins amid rising tensions before he was brutally killed by his roommate, his devastated fiancee revealed.
Kristie Graham believes her partner Robbie Robson would still be alive if changes had been made to living conditions.
She told how the tragic dad had complained to bosses about arrangements on the Qatar oil rig where he died.
He was unhappy that he had to spend 24 hours a day with two colleagues, both sleeping and then working alongside each other.
Normally shifts are rotated so roommates are working while others are kipping.
But he was ignored and the pressure cooker situation came to a head when co-worker Scott Forrest, from Maud, Aberdeenshire, battered Robbie to death.
Kristie, 40, has now launched legal action against his employers, Scottish firm Film-Ocean.
She said: “If they had just listened to Robbie and moved him then this wouldn’t have happened.
“No one made Forrest kill Robbie, I understand that. But I think there’s a lot of things that contributed to the stress that could have been changed quite easily.
“They’ve got to take care as an employer. They knew the situation on the rig and nothing was done.”
Robbie, 38, was forced to share a room with Forrest and another Scot, Chris Begley from Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire.
They all worked twelve hour night shifts and then were forced to sleep together at the same time in the cramped room on the Seafox Burj Al Arab rig.
Robbie had already vowed that this two month stint on the platform would be his last long shift away from home.
And in calls to Kristie he revealed he’d complained to the oil rig manager about the horrendous living conditions.
She said: “He said he’d been to see him because he couldn’t work like that for eight weeks.
“The three of them were working twelve hour night shifts and staying in the same room. It’s unheard of.
“Normally, one’s day shift, one’s night shift, and you rotate. So you have your own space, you have your own time to speak to your family, to do whatever.
“But they didn’t have that. So they were all stuck in a little, rub your shoulders room. It was tiny.”
To make matters worse, alarms kept going off while Robbie and co-workers were trying to rest during the day.
Kristie revealed: “They would have to evacuate their room right away.
“All of them had to get out of bed and go up on deck in case there was a gas leak. That didn’t just happen once.
“And they weren’t given extra time to rest, they had to be back to work as normal that night.”
Forrest, 43, was preparing to leave the rig and had just five hours left onboard when he attacked Robbie from behind in December 2022.
We told how he bludgeoned him to death with a 10 kilo weight that’s used to weigh down submarines then went for breakfast.
Kristie was devastated when he dodged a death sentence and was caged for just ten years.
She’s taking Film-Ocean, based in Ellon, Aberdeenshire, to court and is determined to get justice for Robbie.
The mum-of-two, from Tyne and Wear, said: “I think the whole problem with the oil and gas industry is that it’s just all about money.
“But these are real people who have emotions and families back home. They are not robots.
“They need to be treated properly as hard working men and women who spend so long away from their loved ones.
“They should be treated with some kind of care. A lot of Robbie’s friends work away. And now when they go away, it makes us worry that they’re not being looked after.”
Film-Ocean refused to comment.