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A FORMER football referee was reportedly hacked to death with a machete in Kenya just days after reporting someone tried to poison his dogs.
British man John Middleton, 75, was found with stab wounds in the bath of his home in the southern city of Mombasa.
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Mr Middleton, who had previously lived in Norfolk, was set to go golfing on Saturday morning but didn’t show up, his club captain, Dinesh Sasan said.
The ex footie ref had also said someone tried to poison his dogs in the days leading up to his death, Mr Sasan told the BBC.
The machete that was used to attack him was reportedly left behind at the site, according to local media.
Jamleck Mbuba, the deputy county commissioner for the Kisauni constituency, said “a slight struggle” seemed to have occurred.
But he told NTV Kenya: “The scene was not very disturbed.”
The Brit’s housekeeper was said to have raised the alarm after he did not answer his doorbell on Saturday morning.
Described by his friends in Kenya as “a wonderful guy”, Mr Middleton was a keen golfer who played at the nearby Nyali Golf and Country Club.
Mr Sasan, who had known the former ref since 2015, said: “I used to be with him three or four times a week. We were all sitting together on Friday evening.
“He was very polite, he would stick to his principles and was very helpful. I am totally shocked. It is beyond belief.”
The club captain added that the British High Commission was now involved and that a post-mortem was due to be carried out.
Mr Middleton, a retired Anglian Water engineer, relocated to Kenya in 2014 to live with his wife Regina and their stepson Max.
He had been a referee in Norfolk, a member of Cromer Golf Club, and had lived on Hooks Hills Road in Sheringham.
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