Manslaughter charges under consideration as final body is recovered from Sicily yacht
Coastguard confirms body of Hannah Lynch, 18, found after four-day search, bringing number of dead to seven
Prosecutors in Italy are investigating potential manslaughter charges relating to the sinking of the superyacht Bayesian as a body believed to be Mike Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, was recovered.
The Bayesian sank off the coast of Sicily early on Monday morning when the area was hit by violent storms. Seven people, including the British tech entrepreneur Lynch, died.
After four days of searching, the body of Hannah, the sixth and final person missing from the luxury yacht, was recovered on Friday, according to the Italian coastguard.
The Press Association news agency reported a green body bag was seen being brought to Porticello from the site of the sinking at just before 1pm local time.
The public prosecutor of Termini Imerese is investigating charges of shipwreck, disaster and multiple homicides over the sinking, according to the Italian news agency Adnkronos.
These are similar to manslaughter charges in the UK and the specific charge of provoking or causing a shipwreck can carry a prison sentence of up to 12 years.
Lynch, 59, the founder of Autonomy corporation, had been celebrating his acquittal on fraud charges in the US when the 56-metre sailing boat capsized at about 5am local time on Monday.
Adnkronos also reported that investigators believed that the ship sank bow first and then slowly capsized on to its right side.
The news agency quoted sources among the authorities involved in the recovery operations saying that the victims were found outside their cabins. “The passengers sought escape routes, reaching the opposite side of the vessel they were in,” Adnkronos reported. “But the water had already reached the cabins and five of them were found in that direction.”
Five of the victims were reportedly found in different rooms from those indicated by survivors.
Searches to find Hannah Lynch – the last person unaccounted for on the boat – resumed on Friday morning. According to sources among the firefighters, the divers had also started inspecting the seabed around the wreck.
Vincenzo Zagarola, of the Italian coastguard, said the search for Hannah had not been “easy or quick”, comparing the sunken yacht to an “18-storey building full of water”.
Carlo Dall’Oppio, the national head of Italy’s firefighters, who arrived in Porticello on Thursday, told the Guardian that the search for Hannah Lynch had been “complicated due to furniture obstructing the passage”.
The five others people who died were the chair of Morgan Stanley International, Jonathan Bloomer, his wife, Judy, a lawyer for Clifford Chance, Chris Morvillo, his wife, Neda, and the yacht’s chef, Recaldo Thomas.
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