A court in Grosseto on Wednesday sentenced the captain of the shipwrecked liner the Costa Concordia, to 16 years and one month in prison. In an extraordinary tragedy, the Costa Concordia ran aground off the Tuscan island of Giglio in January 2012 with the loss of 32 lives.
In the verdict, the Grosseto court found Capt Francesco Schettino guilty of multiple manslaughter and of having abandoned his ship before all of the 4,000 passengers and crew had alighted. Capt Schettino, who was not in court for the verdict, is almost certain to appeal. In the meantime, the court did not call for his immediate arrest, while the sentence also imposed a five-year ban as a ship's captain.
Both Capt Schettino and the ship’s owners, Costa Cruise, have been ordered to pay huge damages to various different public and private entities including the Italian government, the region of Tuscany, the island of Giglio local authority and the Civil Protection Service.
In his summing up on Tuesday, public prosecutor Stefano Pizza said there was a “tsunami” of evidence against Capt Schettino, claiming it would be “easier for a lawyer to fly” than to defend Schettino. In essence, the prosecution accused Capt Schettino of total irresponsibility for the manner in which he chose to effect a “sail-past” with the 1,000 foot long Concordia, sailing just yards, rather than the required kilometres, past the rocks off Giglio.
Furthermore, he was accused both of having unnecessarily delayed the “abandon ship” call and then of himself having got off the ship up to two hours before many of the crew and passengers.
In the days after the tragedy, public opinion was rocked by a recording of a radio conversation between Capt Schettino and the coast guard commander Gregorio De Falco, immediately after the ship had run aground, in which commander de Falco is heard to angrily shout at Capt Schettino:
“For Christ’s sake, get back on board, that’s an order . . .”
The prosecution argued that by his behaviour, Capt Schettino had contributed to the chaos of a bungled evacuation which cost 32 lives.
The captain claimed in court that he had left the ship early because he had “fallen into” a lifeboat partly because the stranded ship was listing so badly at the time. In court, however, the prosecution produced coast guard film evidence which showed him calmly climbing into the life boat, complete with his brief case.
Earlier in the day, Capt Schettino had offered a dramatic final statement, breaking into tears just before the judges retired to consider their verdict. Saying he had been made a scapegoat for the Concordia disaster, he claimed he had lived in a “meat grinder” for the last three years, adding:
“It is difficult to call what I have been living through a ‘life’ . . . All the responsibility has been loaded on to me with no respect for the truth or for the memory of the victims.”
Throughout the 19-month trial, Schettino’s defence has argued that he has been made a scapegoat called to pay for the shortcomings of others, in particular of the Costa Cruise company which owns the liner.
Capt Schettino has stood alone on trial in Grosseto because four fellow officers and an official from the Costa Cruise company struck pleas bargains over their role in the tragedy.