A PARTY boat captain was yesterday found not guilty of manslaughter over the drowning of a Limerick student who was holidaying in Ibiza.
Judge Martina Rodriguez Caritg found the captain guilty on one count of a lesser charge of failing to come to the aid of someone requiring help.
Brazil Bourke (21) died after jumping from the deck of the Captain Nemoduring a night-time cruise off Ibiza four years ago.
Luis Berastani Diez, representing the victim’s family, said the ruling was “a travesty of justice” and that they would appeal to a higher court.
Spaniard José Ribas (46) stood trial last month accused of failing to stop the vessel and help the student. The drowned student was with a group of about 12 Irish friends who took the four-hour sunset cruise with another 174 passengers from the port of San Antonio on July 31st, 2006.
Mr Bourke was a nephew of former minister for defence Willie O’Dea.
Mr Bourke’s friends told the court that Mr Ribas ignored their pleas to rescue Mr Bourke.
But a judge yesterday found the captain not guilty of manslaughter. He was found guilty of one count of a lesser charge of failing to come to the aid of someone requiring help.
Prosecutors had called for him to be jailed for four years for manslaughter and fined €18,000 for two counts of failing to help.
The judge found that the deceased had been drinking heavily and had taken drugs including morphine and ecstasy.
Mr Bourke and a friend, Patrick Bourke, both leaped from the boat while it was still at sea.
His friend managed to swim to safety but Mr Bourke’s body was found washed up on the shore the following morning by a holidaymaker.
Mr Ribas was arrested over claims he had failed to stop the boat. Last month, Mr Bourke’s parents John, a farmer, and Mary, travelled to Ibiza from their home in Hospital, Co Limerick, for the one-day trial.
They came face to face with Mr Ribas, and heard five of their son’s friends tell the judge how the captain ignored their desperate pleas for help.
State prosecutor Ruth Negreti told the court Mr Bourke’s death was “preventable” had the captain acted differently on the night.
She said he was fully aware two men were overboard more than a mile from the port, “but at no time was he concerned by the situation, nor did he stop to help.”
The captain insisted he was only aware one person was overboard and that he saw that person swim safely to shore.
In a 10-page written ruling released yesterday, the judge said prosecutors had failed to prove that Mr Ribas knew more than one person was overboard.
For that reason he was only convicted of one count of failing to assist. The judge ruled Mr Ribas was at fault for failing to call the coast guard after hearing there was a man overboard.
She wrote, “the accused, despite knowing that the person had not reached land and the serious danger he was in being in the water, swimming at night, with considerable maritime traffic, decided he had finished his day’s work, leaving the passenger to his own luck”.
“The omission of the captain consists in not advising the coast guard of the fall into the water.
“However, even if the accused had warned the coast guard, given the time required to launch a rescue, it is not proved in any way that the life of the deceased could have been saved.”