By
Rebecca Gibson |
Francesco Schettino, captain of Costa Cruises’ Costa Concordia has been found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 16 years imprisonment.
Schettino was in charge of Costa Concordia when it partially capsized off the coast of Giglio Island in Italy on 13 January 2012 killing 32 people.
Condemned for his decision to delay the order of evacuation for more than an hour and abandon his post before all the passengers were evacuated, Schettino has denied he is solely responsible for the incident. Earlier this month, he submitted a plea bargain for leniency, which was refused.
Although prosecutors originally sought a 26-year jail term, the court finally sentenced Schettino to ten years for multiple manslaughter, five years for causing the shipwreck and one year for abandoning his passengers. He was no arrested immediately and will remain free pending his appeal.
Five other employees, including the helmsman, were handed prison sentences ranging from 18 months to two years and 10 months in plea bargains concluded early in the investigation.
Victims of the incident have celebrated the sentence. In a statement, the victims’ lawyer said: “All of our clients suffered a horrendous ordeal which some may never truly overcome. The trauma they have been through has left some of them needing specialist therapy and counselling to come to terms with what happened and enable them to begin to move on with their lives.”
Last year, Costa Concordia was refloated and towed to Genoa to be dismantled and recycled by the Saipem/San Giorgio del Porto consortium during a four-phase project.
Expected to take around 22 months to complete, the team will strip the interior furnishings and fittings from the decks above water. It will then dismantle the structures of decks 14 to 2, before engineers remove the sponsons and clean the food storerooms and cold storage rooms. Finally, the wreck will be completely disassembled and other operations will include removing any interior fittings, cleaning various areas and demolishing remaining structures. This phase will conclude with the appropriate handling, disposal and recycling of the discarded materials.