Brit tourist shot 12 times in 'contract killing' in Jamaica that could 'stem back to UK'

A BRITISH tourist was shot 12 times in a "contract killing" in Jamaica with the killer still at large, local police said.

Sean Patterson, a 33-year-old personal trainer from west London, was found with gunshot wounds to his upper body and head about midday on Monday near the pool of his holiday accommodation in Bogue Hill, St James.

Fitz Bailey, police deputy commissioner, said on Wednesday: "Our investigation so far has theorised that the murder was a contract killing that emanated from Britain."

Mr Patterson arrived in Jamaica on December 29, with another London man.

They spent time at an apartment before checking into the Bogue Hill villa on New Year's Day, when they met up with a third man from Kingston.

The three stayed in separate rooms.

Mr Patterson and the Jamaican man went to the villa's pool on January 2 where the attack took place.

Mr Bailey said that the Jamaican man: "reported that his back was turned to Patterson when he heard several loud explosions [which] sounded like gunshots".

He said: "He reported that he looked around and saw a lone man dressed in a black hooded sweatshirt with a handgun shooting Patterson."

The Jamaican man reportedly fled and hid in bushes.

Police found the victim on his back in a "pool of blood".

Mr Bailey added: "There is no evidence Patterson was robbed."

He said local authorities are working with their international partners, including British police, and are making "significant progress."

Mr Patterson's mother Lesley Wright, 63, from west London, told the Daily Mail that her son had travelled to the Caribbean island to meet family and it was his first time visiting the country.

She said: "The local police have told me that Sean was at a big party over New Year and was sitting by a pool talking to friends.

"Someone pulled at his arm and he shrugged the person off but about four gunshots were fired immediately afterwards and Sean was hit in the upper body.

"I've lost my baby. No mother should have to bury her child. He'd gone to Jamaica with my godson and one of my best friends and had only been there for two days."

His father, Alan Patterson, told ITV: "I’m trying to process this. I’m Jamaican parentage, I’ve been to Jamaica, all the family has been to Jamaica.

"We need justice, we want justice, he deserves justice because he was somebody.

"His name was Sean Alan Patterson, loved by all people in West London - everywhere he went he was loved.

"He just had that mannerism that just took people over and they took that light away from us.

"Sean, rest in peace, please do son and whoever is responsible let them pay because we are all grieving - his three brothers, his four sisters, his mum, his grandad."

A spokesman for the Foreign Office confirmed they are currently "supporting the family of a British man who died in Jamaica and are in contact with the local authorities".