A Moldovan dancer who had been on the bridge of the Costa Concordia cruise ship when it crashed into a reef off Italy electrified the captain's manslaughter trial Tuesday by testifying reluctantly that the two were lovers. 
 
 Domnica Cemortan, from Moldova, leaves the converted Teatro Moderno theater after testifying in a hearing in the trial of Captain Francesco Schettino, in Grosseto, Italy, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013. The Moldovan... (Associated Press) 
 
 Captain Francesco Schettino leaves after an audience of his trial at the converted Teatro Moderno theater, in Grosseto, Italy, Monday, Oct. 28, 2013. The captain of the wrecked Costa Concordia is charged... (Associated Press) 
 
 Domnica Cemortan, from Moldavia, leaves the converted Teatro Moderno theater after testifying in a hearing in the trial of Captain Francesco Schettino, in Grosseto, Italy, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013. The... (Associated Press) 
 
 Domnica Cemortan, from Moldavia, left, arrives at the converted Teatro Moderno theater to testify in a hearing in the trial of Captain Francesco Schettino, in Grosseto, Italy, Monday, Oct. 28, 2013. The... (Associated Press) 
 
 Domnica Cemortan, 26, only made the admission after being warned by the judge that she risked criminal charges if she didn't answer the question. 
 
 The ship's former captain, Francesco Schettino, is the sole defendant on trial in the Tuscan town of Grosseto. He is charged with manslaughter for the 32 people who died in the crash, with causing the shipwreck on the night of Jan. 13, 2012, and with abandoning ship while many passengers and crew were still aboard. He risks 20 years in jail if convicted. 
 
 Earlier in the day, ship ma??tre d' Antonello Tievoli testified that 10 days before the crash, he had asked Schettino for a favor: Would the captain sail close to the island of Giglio during the Mediterranean cruise because the crewman's family lived there? 
 
 Heads in the courtroom turned Tuesday when Cemortan strode in wearing high-heeled pumps and a figure-hugging black top and skirt. She was questioned both by prosecutors and lawyers for the survivors who have attached civil suits to the manslaughter trial. 
 
 Testifying through a translator, Cemortan said she had worked on the Concordia for three weeks in December 2011. She then re-boarded the ship in January 2012 as a non-paying passenger several hours before the crash near Giglio. 
 
 "When you are someone's lover no one asks you for any explanations" about not having a ticket, she told the court. 
 
 Some in the courtroom gasped at the bold remark. Cemortan insisted her comment was a joke, but the judge made it part of the trial record. 
 
 As she testified, Schettino, who is married, sat at the defense table making a series of classic Italian hand gestures indicating incredulity. 
 
 Cemortan repeatedly declined to answer whether she is or had been romantically involved with Schettino, relenting only after Judge Giovanni Puliatti warned her that she risked criminal charges. 
 
 Tievoli, the maitre'd, said on Jan. 6, 2012, exactly a week before the collision, the cruise ship sailed closer than usual to Giglio and he thanked Schettino for the courtesy. Still, Tievoli recalled that Schettino was disappointed with that route and ordered his No. 2 officer to devise an even closer approach to the tiny island the following fateful week. 
 
 When the Concordia rammed into the reef the night of Jan. 13, gashing its hull and quickly taking on water, many of the passengers were enjoying a gala supper. Cemortan said she had dined at the captain's table with him, and he told crew to slow down the ship so he could have dessert before taking the helm near Giglio. 
 
 They both were on the bridge at the time of the crash. After it, Cemortan testified that she dashed into Schettino's private cabin to change out of her dinner outfit into more practical clothes. She noticed his laptop in the room and took it because she thought it was important. She said she gave it to him when she saw him on Giglio before dawn, after they both had taken separate lifeboats to the island. 
 
 Cemortan told the court Schettino told her immediately after the crash to take good care of a high-ranking crew member who is the brother of the former director-general of Costa Crociere SpA, the Italian cruise line. 
 
 She testified that the crew member, Ciro Onorato, pushed her onto a lifeboat. Because of the confusion and the darkness on the moonless night, she said she couldn't say if any passengers were still aboard the ship when she left the Concordia. 
 
 Hours after Schettino left aboard a lifeboat and was spotted on Giglio, Italian rescue helicopters plucked many survivors from the capsized ship. Many other passengers jumped into the sea to try to swim to Giglio and some drowned. 
 
 Cemortan said she and others aboard her lifeboat pulled several people out of the water. 
 
 Cemortan is among those seeking damages from the captain. 
 
 `'Today I died a second time," she told reporters outside the court, contending that she had suffered psychological trauma due to the shipwreck. 
 
 Last month, a spectacular maritime salvage operation righted the Concordia after 20 months of lying half-submerged on its side off the port of Giglio. The ship will eventually be towed away and broken up for scrap. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Domnica Cemortan testified at Francesco Schettino's trial, as Alan Johnston reports 
 
 A Moldovan dancer who was on the bridge of the Costa Concordia with Captain Francesco Schettino has admitted she was his lover at his trial. 
 
 Domnica Cemortan testified that she was in a romantic relationship with the captain and was with him when the cruise ship ran aground off the north-west Italian coast. 
 
 Capt Schettino faces multiple charges of manslaughter and abandoning ship. 
 
 The January 2012 tragedy killed 32 people. 
 
 The captain faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. 
 
 Ms Cemortan has been the subject of intense media interest, says the BBC's Alan Johnston in Rome. On the night the Costa Concordia ran aground, she had dinner with the captain before he invited her to join him on the bridge as he oversaw what was meant to be a close sail-past of the little Tuscan island of Giglio. 
 
 Local press have speculated the captain may have been distracted by her presence, or even showing off. 
 
 In court, Ms Cemortan acknowledged after being pressed that they had been romantically involved. She had boarded the ship as a non-paying passenger hours before the crash, she said, adding: "When you are someone's lover, no-one asks you for a ticket." She subsequently dismissed the remark as a joke to her translator. 
 
 She said she had worked for the company that operated the Costa Concordia for about three weeks in December 2011, and had met Capt Schettino on a previous cruise. 
 
 Image caption Capt Francesco Schettino blamed his Indonesian helmsman for steering the ship onto rocks 
 
 After the ship hit the rocks, Ms Cemortan said the captain urged her to "save herself". 
 
 She told court that she helped other passengers to abandon ship before getting into a lifeboat herself. 
 
 Trial to take weeks 
 
 The court is expected to hear evidence from about 1,000 surviving passengers and crew during Capt Schettino's trial. 
 
 In testimony earlier in the day, ship maitre d' Antonello Tievoli told the court in Grossetto, Tuscany, that he had asked the captain if he could sail close to the island of Giglio because he has family there, the news agency AP reported. 
 
 The captain obliged on 6 January, but was apparently disappointed with the result, and ordered the ship's helmsman to plot a closer route for next time. 
 
 A week later, the ship ran aground on rocks after veering too close to the island, with 3,206 passengers and 1,023 crew aboard. 
 
 The captain has acknowledged fault in the tragedy, but his defence team is arguing the ship sank in part because watertight doors did not function on the ship. 
 
 He also told the court in late September that his Indonesian helmsman was to blame for steering the ship onto rocks and ignoring orders to slow down. 
 
 Image caption The route of the Costa Concordia 
 
 However, an Italian naval expert told the trial these were not crucial factors and the crash would have happened anyway. 
 
 The helmsman, Jacob Rusli Bin, is one of five employees who were granted plea bargains in return for mild sentences in a separate proceeding. He was given a sentence of one year and eight months. 
 
 The 290m-long vessel was righted last month in one of the largest, most complex salvage operations ever that took 18 hours and followed months of stabilisation and preparation work by a team of 500 engineers and divers. 
 
 That operation allowed divers to retrieve the remains of one of the two people still missing in the disaster, believed to be an Italian passenger, Maria Grazia Trecarichi. An Indian waiter, Russel Rebello, is still unaccounted for. 
 
 Plans are now being made to attempt to remove the wreckage of the ship next year. 
 
 Image caption The Costa Concordia was righted in September 
 
 Correction 30 October 2013: We initially reported that the remains of Russel Rebello, not Maria Grazia Trecharichi, had been found, based on out-of-date information.
– The trial of the captain who ran the Costa Concordia aground is under way, and the early testimony suggests that 32 people died because Francesco Schettino wanted to make good on a favor to a crew member and perhaps impress his lover at the same time. The two big developments: Crew member: Ship maitre'd Antonello Tievoli told the court that he asked the captain to sail close to the Tuscan island of Giglio because Tievoli had family there, reports AP. Schettino did so on Jan. 6 but didn't think he got close enough. He ordered his crew to make a closer pass the following week, and that's when the ship hit the rocks and sank. Lover testifies: Domnica Cemortan, a 26-year-old Moldovan dancer, confirmed to the court, reluctantly, that she was indeed Schettino's lover, reports the BBC. The two dined together before the crash, and she said the captain asked the crew to slow down so he could have dessert before taking the helm for the pass-by of Giglio. Cemortan accompanied him to the bridge and was with him when the ship crashed. She had two memorable quotes today: "When you are someone's lover, no one asks you for a ticket," and, outside court, "Today, I died a second time."