“16 years for 32 deaths are nothing...it is an inadequate punishment...Then, too, it was not only Schettino who should have been found guilty but also those who were on the bridge with him and those people from (owner company) Costa who were on land and did nothing...”
On the morning after the court verdict in Grosseto which sentenced ex-Costa Concordia captain, Francesco Schettino, to 16 years and one month in prison for the January 2012 shipwreck of the Concordia, which resulted in the loss of 32 lives, inevitably not everyone was satisfied with the verdict.
The above words, spoken to Italian daily Il Sole 24 Ore, are those of Giovanni Girolamo, father of Giuseppe, a musician who worked and died on the Costa Concordia and who received posthumous honours for having given up his lifeboat place for a child.
In reality, there was never much doubt that 54-year-old Capt. Schettino would be found guilty. As public prosecutor Stefano Pizza said in court on Tuesday, there was a “tsunami” of evidence against him.
His “sail past” the rocky island of Giglio, at a distance of metres rather than kilometres and at a speed of 16 knots rather 5 knots, was clearly an act of irresponsible folly which caused the 1,000 feet long Concordia to crash into the rocks and subsequently run aground.
Worse still, he admitted that he abandoned the ship long before many of the 4,229 passengers and crew, and came up with the comical explanation; that he had unintentionally “fallen into” a lifeboat. (Coast Guard film shown in court of the captain calmly climbing into a lifeboat subsequently disproved this claim).
Culpability
This trial asked two important questions, highlighted Mr Girolamo’s disappointment. Firstly, how heavy a sentence would Schettino receive and secondly, what would the verdict indicate about the culpability of the Costa Cruise company and its parent company, the US Carnival?
In the end, last night’s sentence was divided into three parts; five years for the shipwreck, 10 years for multiple manslaughter and one year for having abandoned the ship. The prosecution had asked for a 26-year sentence.
Significantly, the court did not order the immediate arrest of Capt. Schettino, who remains free and whose defence team will appeal the verdict, initiating a two tier appeals process that could take years to resolve.
Schettino will be arrested only when that appeals process has ended with his “definitive” conviction. In the meantime, he remains free because the court does not consider him a flight risk.
Yesterday’s verdict also saw both Costa Cruise and Capt. Schettino condemned to pay millions of damages to various different public and private entities including the Italian government, the Region of Tuscany, the Island of Giglio, the Civil Protection Service and, crucially, to various survivors who were represented in the trial as “civil plaintiffs”.
Among the civil plaintiffs was the 24-year-old Moldavian woman, Domnica Cemortan, who was on the bridge with the captain on the night of the shipwreck. She received a €30,000 settlement under the terms of this judgement.
It remains to be seen what impact such a settlement will have on the more than 300 other legal proceedings, taken privately or collectively by other survivors and still pending.
Another issue certain to dominate future Concordia-related cases concerns the actions and behaviour of the Costa Cruise company on the night of the shipwreck. In various interviews, Capt. Schettino hinted that delays in the rescue operation were prompted by the concern of Costa Cruise to ensure its insurance companies would pay for the hefty salvage operation, which in the end will cost $1.5 billion.
The Concordia was parbuckled to an upright position in September 2013, and then towed to Genoa last July where it is currently being dismantled, recycled and sold for scrap.
Capt. Schettino also alleged that the ship’s crew were poorly trained and that key elements in the ship’s mechanics malfunctioned on the night of the disaster.
Remember, he blamed his helmsman, Indonesian national Jacob Rusli Bin, for misinterpreting his order to turn the ship away form the coast before the rocks were hit. Coming from him, are such allegations against Costa Cruise credible?
One thing is for sure. This truly is a story that will run and run.