Costa Concordia captain Francesco Schettino sentenced to 16 years jail

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The former captain of the doomed Costa Concordia is found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 16 years in prison for his role in the loss of the giant cruiseliner which left 32 people dead. Mana Rabiee reports.

• Reuters
• 12 Feb 2015
• News/World

Jail time ... Costa Concordia captain Francesco Schettino has been sentenced to 16 years and one month in prison for his role in the fatal shipwreck. Picture: AFP/Alberto Pizzoli Source: AFP

THE skipper known around the world as “Captain Coward” Francesco Schettino has been sentenced to 16 years jail for his role in the capsizing of the ocean liner Costa Concordia claiming the lives of 32 people.

The 54-year-old was sentenced at the end of a 19-month trial, three years after the January 2012 disaster, which occurred after the huge cruise ship hit rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio.

CAPTAIN: Schettino tried to impress passengers, not dancer

COSTA CONCORDIA: Captain defends evacuation delay

Italian court ... Judge Giovanni Pugliatti (centre) reads the verdict at the end of the trial for Costa Concordia captain Francesco Schettino at the Grosseto court in Italy. Picture: AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia Source: AP

Moments before the passing of sentence in the Italian courts, the disgraced captain tearfully appealed for mercy on the multiple charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his vessel with passengers and crew on board earning him the nickname of Captain Coward.

Prosecutors had sought a total sentence of 26 years and three months and instead Judge Giovanni Puliatti, reading out the verdict Wednesday night local time in a Grosseto theater, handed him a 16 year and one month sentence.

He remains on bail and it may however be years before he is actually jailed as appeal processes in Italy can take years.

Maritime disaster ... the Costa Concordia cruise ship ran aground off Isola del Giglio and keeled over in 2012. Picture: AFP/Filippo Monteforte Source: AFP

At 9.45pm on the night of January 13, 2012 and in calm seas and overcast but fine weather Schettino steered the Concordia close to the Italian Isola del Giglio on the western Tuscan coast to impress those on board, particularly a head waiter who was a local of the island. It was always going to be a risky “sail-past salute”. In doing so he struck a reef and tore a 50m gash on the ship’s port side of the hull, flooding the engine.

Onboard were 4200 passengers and crew including 23 Australian holidaymakers.

He failed to call for an abandon ship and infamously as the ship listed to the side, he abandoned ship; he was publicly berated by rescuers in helicopters and boats who could see panicked passengers still trying to get off board. He was ordered to return to his ship to coordinate the evacuation but he refused.

“Listen Schettino, perhaps you have saved yourself from the sea, but I will make you look very bad. I will make you pay for this. Dammit, go back on board!” said Coastguard Capt Gregorio De Falco, repeatedly ordering him to return to the ship.

Devastating loss ... 32 passengers and crew died when the boat capsized in 2012. Picture: AP/Giuseppe Modesti Source: AP

Thirty-two passengers and crew died in the accident.

In his defence, Schettino claimed he fell overboard the badly tilting ship and his crew was to blame for the collision and he was simply a scapegoat set up by the media in a witch-hunt.

There were no Australians killed in the Costa Concordia but for some of the 23 Australians on board the doomed ship they suffered nightmares for years.

Perth couple Rob Elcombe and Tracey Gunn took the cruise in a bid to save their marriage but in the end saved each other from what they described as just like the movie Titanic. They survived the sinking but now are drowning in the mental trauma of it all.

“We are both suffering post traumatic stress, depression and its been pretty bad years for us,” Mr Elcombe said in 2013 on the one year anniversary of the sinking.

Lasting effects ... Some passengers and crew are suffering from post traumatic stress and depression since the sinking. Picture: AP/Gregorio Borgia Source: AP

Ms Gunn added: “We had to basically change our lives but we don’t hold any malice against him, he made a mistake. In the light of day Costa is responsible for it, putting an (Indonesian) helmsman who didn’t speak Italian or English and the captain the way he acted.”

Melbourne man John Sultana was with his wife Michelle Barraclough and now 15- year-old daughter Katherine when the ship sank and had recalled how it was every man for themselves as grown men shoved them out of the way to get off the ship.

Other crew on board made plea bargains in court and were given suspended sentences.

Lawyers for many of the survivors and victims’ families have attached civil suits to the criminal trial to press the court to order Costa Crociere, the Italian cruise company, to pay hefty damages. So far it has only made small recompense of up to $14,000 per family.

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