Bayesian superyacht captain due to leave Italy

Lawyers for Kiwi captain James Cutfield revealed how he was too “shaken up” to answer questions from officials amid superyacht horror.

The captain of the Bayesian superyacht was due to leave Italy on Thursday as a police probe into manslaughter continues.

Skipper James Cutfield, 51, came under investigation for shipwreck and manslaughter on Monday, a week after the luxury vessel sank off the coast of Sicily killing seven people.

Cutfield, who lost his passport in the tragedy, has been given a copy by officials so he can leave Italy with his wife and head home to Mallorca.

He is expected to leave by Friday morning at the latest, Italian outlet Giornale Di Sicilia reports.

James Cutfield’s lawyers this week revealed how he was too ‘shaken up’ to answer questions from officials on Tuesday

Prosecutors are also probing two other members of the crew - engineer Tim Parker-Eaton, from Clophill, Beds, and sailor Matthew Griffith, 22.

The investigation into culpable shipwreck and multiple manslaughter does not imply guilt or necessarily mean formal charges will be brought against the three men.

The luxury 184ft superyacht, worth $58 million, sank while anchored off the coast of Porticello on August 19 after it was caught up in a freak storm.

Of the 22 on-board, 15 survived and seven died including Brit billionaire Mike Lynch and his daughter Hannah along with yacht chef Recaldo Thomas.

Prosecutors investigating potential crimes of negligent shipwreck and manslaughter after the superyacht sank killing seven people, including UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch. Picture: Alessandro Fucarini / AFP.

The remaining four victims were two married couples invited on the trip by the Lynch family who were celebrating Mike’s recent acquittal in a US fraud case.

Cutfield’s lawyers this week revealed how he was too “shaken up” to answer questions from officials on Tuesday at a hotel in Palermo.

Solicitor Aldo Mordiglia told The Times he had “exercised his right to remain silent”.

“There were two reasons. He is understandably very shaken up, and secondly, us lawyers were only appointed yesterday and we need to acquire information we do not have in order to defend him.”

UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch (R) and his daughter Hannah Lynch. Picture: Family handout/AFP

Crew member Griffith is understood to have been on watch the night of the tragedy, a judicial source told Reuters on Wednesday.

Parker-Eaton is suspected of having failed to protect the engine room and operating systems when it was hit by a storm.

Reports suggest crew bedrooms have been searched, with at least two phones seized.

Under Italian maritime laws, the full responsibility for the welfare of a ship, its crew, and passengers lies with the captain of a vessel.

The wreck survivors, including Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, 57, left Sicily in a private jet on Sunday, with most of the crew also set to leave after being grilled by investigators.

Divers recovered bodies from the doomed superyacht which sunk off the coast of Sicily in a storm. Picture: Alberto Pizzoli / AFP.

Divers spent five days scouring the Bayesian wreck to retrieve the bodies of six missing passengers last week.

They found Mike Lynch and his four guests, Chris and Neda Morvillo and Jonathan and Judy Bloomer, in the first cabin on the left.

Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah was the last passenger to be discovered in the third cabin.

Officials said the victims had scrambled to reach air pockets in the yacht as it sank stern-first before rolling onto its right side on the seabed.

Investigators are understood to be rifling through CCTV footage and photographs taken by locals on the night of the storm to understand why the boat sank so quickly.

At a press conference at the Termini Imerese Courthouse on Saturday, Chief Prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio said there may have been “behaviours that were not perfectly in order with regard to the responsibility everybody had”.

His team will probe if hatches were left open, allowing water to flood in.

They will also look into whether the crew raised the alarm before escaping.

He vowed to “discover how much they knew and to what extent all the people (passengers) were warned”.

“There could be in fact the question of homicide. But this is the beginning of the inquiry, we cannot exclude anything at all…we will establish each element’s (crew) responsibility,” Mr Cartosio added.

“For me, it is probable that offences were committed — that it could be a case of manslaughter.”

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission