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THE CAPTAIN OF the shipwrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship has been was convicted of multiple charges of manslaughter and sentenced to 16 years in prison, Italian court officials said.
Francesco Schettino was convicted of manslaughter over the deaths of 32 passengers and crew in the January 2012 capsizing.
He was also convicted of causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship while many of the 4,200 passengers and crew were still on the ship.
The verdict and sentencing brought an end to a trial that has been running since July 2013. Prosecutors had insisted Schettino was a “reckless idiot” and asked the court to sentence him to 26 years and three months in prison.
Schettino wasn’t present when Judge Giovanni Puliatti read out the verdict this evening, but the former captain told the court earlier he was being “sacrificed” to safeguard the economic interests of his employer. He then broke down in sobs immediately before the panel began deliberating.
“That’s enough,” Schettino said, unable to finish his statement to the three-judge panel.
Testimony put the spotlight on errors by other crew and equipment malfunctions after the Concordia smashed into a jagged reef when Schettino steered the ship close to the Tuscan island’s shoreline while passengers were having supper in the main dining room.
The reef gashed the hull, seawater rushed in, and the Concordia listed badly, finally ending up on its side outside Giglio’s port. Autopsies determined that victims drowned aboard ship or in the sea after either falling or jumping off the ship during a chaotic, delayed evacuation.
Schettino said he was “a few hours from a verdict that should have involved an entire organization and instead sees me as the only defendant.”
“My head was sacrificed to serve economic interests,” the 54-year-old Neapolitan seaman told the court.
Solicitors for many of the survivors and victims’ families have attached civil suits to the criminal trial to press the court to order Costa Crociere SpA, the Italian cruise company, to pay hefty damages.
While insisting Schettino deserves conviction and a stiff prison sentence, the plaintiffs’ lawyers have lamented to the court that no one from the cruise company’s upper echelons was put on trial.
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Jesus, to be honest I wasn’t expecting a sentence that long but what a stupid decision he made. One he’ll live with forever and have much time to ponder on in prison.
Just some points of information for you all and especially The Journal’s report: captains do not steer ships. The bridge team consisting of a number of navigation officers were navigating at the time and also monitoring the position of the ship. The captain arrived on the bridge far too late and realised that the ship was too close to the shore again far too late. He must accept his responsibilities. Also, he did not control the open watertight doors to make it convenient to transport food to the restaurants. This is not permitted in pilotage waters. The emergency generator was located in one of the first compartments to be flooded – a design error. There’s a lot more to come out of this and the company must be asked many questions. The problem has not been solved by jailing a single person namely the captain.
“Reckless Idiot” was lowballing it I thought.
He abandoned his ship , his crew and his passengers , he’s a coward . imagine there was a time when his kids would have been so proud telling their friends that Daddy was the captain of a ship ! 16 years doesn’t seem long enough .
Blamed everyone else but himself . .
And who does this remind me of…. The Butterlys
They should have made the count walk the plank……
He’s no Jean luc picard
I dunno, Jean Luc did crash the Enterprise straight into another ship once…..
32 dead- he got a 16 year sentence- time of for good behavior-etc-
A few months for every person he killed-
Or if you were involved in the deaths of 48 people here…. You walk free
He is the worse description of a captian ever he should be made tattoo the name of every person who died on his forehead because of his recklessness and cowardly behaviour.
They should of hanged him
You are against him killing people and now you want to kill yourself
He should of got life for causing so many deaths
You two should HAVE gone to school to learn when to use HAVE and not OF.
Yea yea stasi, thers mor to worry bout than bad spellin or grammar
16 years is far too long a sentence for manslaughter.. Fair enough he made a mistake that cost people’s lives and made some cowardly decisions but that’s just wrong. It’s not far off the sentence you’d expect for intentionally killing somebody.
Even the somalians know better then to hijack his boats
Thats a light sentence. Must have known somebody!!
Don’t forget Berlisconi got 4 years jail and won’t serve a day. This guy will appeal and that could take years. So maybe he won’t serve a day.
Some difference between him & Captain Sully.
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