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Italian prosecutors are investigating potential manslaughter charges after the superyacht Bayesian sank off the coast of Sicily, leading to the death of seven people, including British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah Lynch.
According to a report on The Guardian, the 56-meter yacht sank early Monday morning during violent storms. After four days of search efforts, Italian coastguards recovered the body of Hannah Lynch on Friday, the last missing person from the yacht. According to the Press Association, a green body bag was seen being brought to Porticello from the sinking site just before 1 p.m. local time.
Prosecutors in Termini Imerese are investigating charges of shipwreck, disaster, and multiple homicides, which in Italy are similar to manslaughter charges in the UK. The charge of causing or provoking a shipwreck can carry a prison sentence of up to 12 years, according to the Italian news agency Adnkronos.
Mike Lynch, 59, founder of Autonomy Corporation, was on the yacht celebrating his acquittal on fraud charges in the United States when it capsized at around 5 a.m. local time. The ship reportedly sank bow first before capsizing onto its right side, according to investigators cited by Adnkronos.
Authorities involved in the recovery operations stated that most victims were found outside their cabins, suggesting they sought escape routes. "The passengers reached the opposite side of the vessel," Adnkronos reported. "But the water had already reached the cabins, and five of them were found in that direction."
Five victims were found in different rooms from those indicated by survivors. Search efforts for Hannah Lynch resumed Friday morning, with divers inspecting the seabed around the wreck.
Vincenzo Zagarola of the Italian coastguard noted that the search for Hannah Lynch had been “neither easy nor quick,” describing the sunken yacht as an “18-storey building full of water.” Carlo Dall’Oppio, the national head of Italy’s firefighters, told the Guardian that the search had been complicated due to furniture obstructing the passage.
The other victims of the sinking include Jonathan Bloomer, chair of Morgan Stanley International, his wife Judy, Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo, his wife Neda, and the yacht's chef, Recaldo Thomas.
[Information sourced from The Guardian]
