The body of Mike Lynch’s missing daughter Hannah has been recovered from the wreck of the Bayesian superyacht, with Italian authorities investigating her as manslaughter.
The 18-year-old student was the sixth and final person missing after the £30million ship sank in a heavy storm off the coast of Sicily on Monday. Seven people have now been confirmed dead, including the ship’s chef Recaldo Thomas.
The Bayesian, owned by Dr Lynch, sank during a ‘victory voyage’ to celebrate his acquittal on fraud charges in the US.
According to Italian media, local authorities are now investigating “a shipwreck and multiple cases of culpable homicide” – similar to manslaughter charges in the UK.
The investigation is being led by Ambrogio Cartosio, head of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in the nearby town Termini Imerese. More details are expected to be announced tomorrow morning during a press conference.
Causing a shipwreck is a separate crime under the Italian Penal Code. Persons found guilty of provoking or causing a shipwreck can be sentenced to up to 12 years in prison.
Search teams have been at the scene of the Bayesian collapse this morning as they prepare to continue the search for the last missing person, Hannah Lynch
The Bayesian yacht sank off the coast of Sicily on August 19 during heavy storms
Banker Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy died in the disaster (left). Tech boss Mike Lynch (right), who had just been acquitted of fraud in the US, also died.
Clifford Chance attorney Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo were also on board the ship
The body of chef Recaldo Thomas (pictured) was discovered on the day of the sinking
The body of the boat’s cook was found shortly after the sinking. Since then, five more bodies have been found (Photo: Rescuers practicing with equipment)
Investigators have studied videos and photos taken the night of the storm, showing the ship’s final minutes, and camera footage from the port.
Italian news website Palermo Today reported that coastguards have visited all houses and public places with marine surveillance cameras in the area.
The prosecution is also investigating the actions and decisions of Captain James Cutfield, 51, and Matthew Griffith, 22, who is said to be the co-pilot, Palermo Today reported.
It is reported that Mr Cutfield was questioned ‘at length’ by the Crown Prosecution Service for at least two hours.
Tributes have poured in for the victims of the tragedy, including her father Dr Lynch, once dubbed Britain’s Bill Gates, after his body was found in one of the ship’s cabins early yesterday morning.
Dr. Lynch’s body was the fifth found on the lower deck of the ill-fated yacht, which lies on the seabed at a depth of 164 feet, half a mile from Porticello harbor.
The tragic discovery was made after Italian authorities said they had found the father and daughter when the first of four bodies were pulled from the wreckage.
However, yesterday morning it was reported that Hannah is still missing and that the first bodies to be brought ashore are those of British businessman Jonathan Bloomer, 70, his wife Judy, 71, and lawyer Chris Morvillo, 59, and his wife Neda, 57.
Angela Bacares, Dr. Lynch’s wife, was one of the fifteen people rescued after the ‘apocalyptic’ events that followed the shipwreck. She anxiously awaited news of her husband and daughter.
According to Carlo Dall’Oppio, the head of the national fire brigade, the work is progressing slowly because the safety of the divers must be guaranteed due to the depth of the wreck.
“The sixth body has not yet been located. We have not yet inspected the entire boat, so we believe the body may still be inside.
“These operations are slow because we have to protect the health of our operators first. It’s a difficult job – there are about 40 divers.”
According to Italian media, the victims were found on the opposite side of the yacht from their cabins, suggesting they may have been trying to escape the incoming water by reaching higher ground.
Bayesian leader James Cutfield (pictured) has been questioned by officials investigating the tragedy
A coast guard boat is on the water this morning near the spot where the ship sank off the coast of Sicily
Divers from the Italian fire brigade speak on a rescue boat this morning as they prepare to resume the search for Hannah
The superyacht is said to have sunk at its bow and tilted to starboard.
“We found them all on that side… we had maps showing the layout of the cabins and the positions of the guests, but we didn’t find them there,” a source said.
Rescuers said they needed a “crystal ball” to predict when the sixth body would be recovered.
Luca Cari, a spokesman for the fire brigade, told Sky News: “It is very difficult to move around the wreck. It can take up to 24 hours to move just one metre.” A decision on whether to raise the sunken yacht from the seabed is “not on the agenda” but will come in the future, said Vincenzo Zagarola of the Italian coastguard.
He also said the missing woman is believed to still be in the boat.
As the search continued last night, tributes were still being paid to those now confirmed dead.
The now-orphaned Bloomer family released a heartbreaking statement saying the loss of their parents was “an unimaginable grief to bear.”
‘Our parents were wonderful people and an inspiration to many, but above all they were focused on their family and loved their grandchildren.
“They have been together for fifty years and our only comfort is that they are still together now,” they said.
The chairman of the children’s charity NSPCC described Mr Bloomer, the organisation’s former honorary treasurer, as “a very kind person”,
Neil Berkett, chairman of Morgan Stanley International Bank and his wife, said: ‘We remember Jonathan from his time with us as a very friendly person with a great sense of humour and Judy as a formidable and passionate man.’
Industry leaders also paid tribute to Dr. Lynch, praising his contributions to the technology world.
David Tabizel, Dr. Lynch’s co-founder at Autonomy, said: ‘The world has lost a genius. His family has lost a giant of a man.’ ‘He was exhausting, exciting, and astute… Britain’s Bill Gates? Not really. Britain’s Steve Jobs. The father of modern AI.’
Industry body TechUK also paid tribute, calling him “a hugely important and ground-breaking figure” in the British technology sector.
Lord Browne of Madingley described him as ‘the person who launched a generation of deep tech entrepreneurs in the UK’.
The chairman of BeyondNetZero said: ‘His ideas and personal vision have made a powerful contribution to science and technology, both in the UK and globally.’ Dr Lynch’s close friend Brent Hoberman, the former CEO of lastminute.com, described the disaster as a ‘Shakespearean tragedy’.
He said: ‘We were all hoping for a miracle, we knew it was unlikely, but you keep hoping. ‘It’s just so incredibly tragic for him to have to go through what he’s been through for the last 12 years, defending his name and not really living a full life, and now that his death has been confirmed, it’s obviously incredibly sad.’
The Morvillos family, who have two daughters who are now orphans, said in a statement that they were “completely devastated” by the “enormous loss.”
The bodies were informally identified when they were brought ashore and are expected to be formally identified by relatives after an autopsy next week, in accordance with Italian law.
Their deaths bring the death toll to six after the yacht’s Canadian chef Recaldo Thomas was found shortly after the vessel sank in a storm at 5am.
In a separate incident, Dr Lynch’s co-defendant in his fraud case, Stephen Chamberlain, died after being hit by a car while jogging in Cambridgeshire on Saturday.
Dr Lynch, who founded software giant Autonomy in 1996, was cleared in June of large-scale fraud relating to the $11bn (£8.64bn) sale of the company to US firm Hewlett Packard.
Mr Zagarola said earlier that a decision on whether to raise the sunken yacht from the seabed was “not on the agenda” but would be made in the future.
Giovanni Costantino, director of the company that built the yacht, called it “absurd” that passengers on the yacht were sitting in their cabins.
He told the Times: ‘Why were they in their huts?
‘The local fishermen saw the storm coming, why didn’t anyone on board the Bayesian know?
‘From 03:50 the captain had four minutes to get the passengers out of their cabins.’
He continued: ‘They should have dropped anchor, started the engine, pointed the bow to the wind and lowered the keel.
“If they had done that, no one on board would have been afraid. They would have been back in bed within the hour and ready to continue their journey.”
The search involved a helicopter, remotely controlled underwater vehicles, naval units and cave divers.
The Bayesian was moored about half a mile off the coast of Porticello when it sank when a storm hit the area.
The wreck lies on the seabed off the coast at a depth of 50 metres.