A West Wiltshire businessman who moved to an idyllic island in the Philippines to start a new life with his young girlfriend has been shot dead by robbers.

Retired picture framer and restorer Charles Stuart Maxwell, 61, known as Charlie, was shot twice in the chest after gunmen raided his home in Ubay, on the paradise island of Bohol, where he lived with his 21-year-old Filipina girlfriend Charita del Rosario.

Mr Maxwell is believed to have been having dinner with his girlfriend, who he had met on the internet, and two other women when three men came to the door.

Miss Rosario sells mobile phone top-ups from home. Police said the men at first asked to buy a top-up but then began asking for money.

Mr Maxwell heard the commotion and went to the door himself but one of the men shot him at close range.

One woman managed to escape to get help while the other two were forced at gunpoint to hand over money and other valuables.

The men fled on a motorbike. No arrests have been made.

Mr Maxwell, who had moved from Longbridge Deverill near Warminster at the end of last year and opened a garage business, died en route to hospital. Mr Maxwell leaves behind his son Sean, a postman from Warminster, four grandchildren and his ex-wife Jane Wells, who now lives in Devon.

Sean, 41, of Alcock Crest, said he found out about his father’s death when he was contacted by a friend of his dad through the social networking website, Facebook.

He said: “I didn’t say a lot really when I found out. I was devastated and was in shock. He only wrote to my wife Sarah last week on Facebook. He seemed very happy and was having the time of his life.

“I didn’t see my dad very often. The last time was about a year ago. He tended to drift in and out of my life – he drifts in and out of everybody’s life, he was just like that.

“He was an easy bloke to get along with, always bubbly and always made people smile.”

Mr Maxwell, who was born in Warminster, has four grandchildren – Aaron, 15, Connor, 13, Shay, six, and Ryan, five. He was also stepfather to Anna Wells, 36, and Steve Wells, 34.

Ms Wells, 61, returned to Longbridge Deverill this week with the task of breaking the tragic news to his closest friends. She said: “He was very laid back – he would say he was so laid back that he was horizontal. He was a kind man. He was fun-loving, unconventional and never had a bad word to say about anybody.

“I am desperately trying not to cry because if I start crying now I will be done for.”

The couple were married for 25 years and lived in Homefields, Longbridge Deverill, where Mr Maxwell ran his business until they divorced last year. Mr Maxwell, who was severely dyslexic, met Jane on the market stalls in Warminster when she was selling fabric and haberdashery and he was selling pictures and glasswear.

Mr Maxwell will be cremated in the Philippines with his ashes brought back to Warminster for a memorial service.