ROME (Reuters) - The former captain of the Costa Concordia cruise liner was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Friday by Italy’s highest court for his role in the 2012 shipwreck, which killed 32 people off the Tuscan holiday island of Giglio.

Captain of the Costa Concordia cruise liner Francesco Schettino arrives for his trial in Grosseto February 11, 2015. REUTERS/Max Rossi/Files

Francesco Schettino was originally found guilty in 2015 of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his passengers. Friday’s ruling marked the end of the appeals process, with the court upholding the initial verdict.

Free during the prolonged legal battles, Schettino, 56, reported to a Rome prison to start his sentence as soon as he was told of the verdict, his lawyer Saverio Senese said.

“As always, Italy needs to find a scapegoat,” Senese told reporters, adding that his client had waited for word of his fate alone outside the prison gates rather than stay at home with his family in southern Italy.

The Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew, when it hit rocks off Giglio on a chill January night, tearing a hole in its side and eventually keeling over.

Schettino was lambasted by the Italian media and branded “Captain Coward” for leaving the stricken ship while a chaotic night-time rescue operation was in full flow. Critics accused him of bringing shame to the whole country through his actions.

At his first trial prosecutors had asked for a 26-year term. Schettino admitted some responsibility but denied blame for the deaths that occurred during the evacuation and said he was not solely to blame.

His lawyer said he might appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. “I think there have been serious abuses here,” Senese said. “I never give up.”

Investigators severely criticized Schettino’s handling of the disaster, accusing him of sailing too close to shore to perform a spectacular “salute” to Giglio for the benefit of the ship’s head waiter, who came from the island.

Schettino was also accused of delaying the evacuation and abandoning his ship prematurely. He said he had been thrown off the vessel as it tilted and had landed on the roof a lifeboat.

Humiliatingly, a furious coast guard official had to order him to return to his ship and take charge of the rescue.

He was left alone on the stand to answer for the disaster after the ship’s owner, the Costa Cruises subsidiary of Carnival Corp, paid a fine of 1 million euros ($1.3 million at the time) and prosecutors accepted plea bargains from five other officials.

The massive, rusting hulk of the Costa Concordia was left abandoned on its side for two-and-a-half years before it was towed away in the most expensive maritime wreck recovery in history. The last body was not recovered until 2014.

Schettino’s defense team contended that he prevented an even worse disaster by steering the ship close to the island as it sank.</s>Image copyright AFP/Getty Image caption Francesco Schettino was sentenced in 2015

Italy's highest court has upheld the 16-year jail sentence given to the captain of the Costa Concordia, which capsized in 2012 killing 32 people.

Francesco Schettino had handed himself in to the Rebibbia prison in Rome after the verdict, his lawyer said.

Schettino was sentenced in 2015 after a court found him guilty of manslaughter, causing a maritime accident and abandoning ship.

The cruise ship capsized after hitting rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio.

Schettino was nicknamed "Captain Coward" by the media, after the coastguard released recordings of him in a lifeboat resisting orders to return to the stricken vessel.

More than 4,000 people were aboard at the time and were forced into a chaotic evacuation.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption How the Costa Concordia capsized

Prosecutors say he steered too close to the island to show off to a dancer, Domnica Cemortan, who was with him at the helm.

But he blamed communication problems with the Indonesian helmsman.

The court ruling was welcomed by a lawyer representing relatives of the victims, who said it represented justice at last.

The sentence included 10 years for manslaughter, five for causing the shipwreck, one for abandoning the ship before passengers and crew were clear, and one month for lying to the authorities afterwards.

Costa Crociere, the company that owned the ship, sidestepped potential criminal charges in 2013 by agreeing to pay a €1m ($1.1m; £769,000) fine.

Five of Schettino's colleagues were also jailed for up to three years in earlier cases.</s>ROME, May 12 (Reuters) - The former captain of the Costa Concordia cruise liner was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Friday by Italy's highest court for his role in the 2012 shipwreck, which killed 32 people off the island of Giglio, a court official said.

Francesco Schettino was originally found guilty in 2015 of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his passengers. Friday's ruling exhausted his appeals process, with the court rejecting his claim that others bore the blame for the disaster.

Free pending the decision, the 56-year-old Schettino is expected to start his jail sentence in the coming hours.

Schettino was commanding the vessel, which was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew, when it hit rocks off the Tuscan holiday island, tearing a hole in its side and eventually forcing it to keel over. (Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Isla Binnie)</s>The captain of the Costa Concordia cruise liner has begun a 16-year jail sentence for wrecking the ship in a disaster that killed 32 people.

Francesco Schettino was convicted of manslaughter in 2015 after he steered the ship onto rocks after veering to close to the shore off Tuscany.

Despite the conviction he had avoided jail by going through a series of appeals.

Family members of the victims expressed relief Schettino was finally behind bars after Italy's highest court upheld the conviction and sentence.

Michelina Suriano, one of the lawyers representing the victims, said "finally Schettino begins to pay for his wrongdoing."</s>The former captain of the Costa Concordia cruise liner was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Friday by Italy's highest court for his role in the 2012 shipwreck, which killed 32 people off the Tuscan holiday island of Giglio.

Francesco Schettino was originally found guilty in 2015 of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his passengers. Friday's ruling marked the end of the appeals process, with the court upholding the initial verdict.

Free pending the decision, Schettino, 56, reported to a Rome prison to start his sentence as soon as he was told of the verdict, his lawyer Saverio Senese said.

"As always, Italy needs to find a scapegoat," Senese told reporters, adding that his client had waited for word of his fate alone outside the prison gates rather than stay at home with his family.

Schettino has always maintained that he was not solely responsible for the disaster. His lawyer said he might appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. "I think there have been serious abuses here," he said. "I never give up."

The Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew, when it hit rocks off Giglio, tearing a hole in its side and eventually keeling over.

Schettino was lambasted by the Italian media and branded "Captain Coward" for leaving the stricken ship while a chaotic night-time rescue operation was in full flow. Critics accused him of bringing shame to the whole country through his actions.</s>The Italian captain of the Costa Concordia cruise liner that crashed into a reef killing 32 people is set to begin his lengthy prison sentence after losing his final appeals bid.

The Court of Cassation, Italy's highest criminal tribunal, in a ruling Friday evening upheld Francesco Schettino's lower court convictions and his 16-year prison sentence.

Schettino, dubbed 'Captain Coward,' was convicted of manslaughter and causing the shipwreck while captaining the luxury liner sailing near Giglio Island off Tuscany on January 13, 2012.

He was also convicted of abandoning the capsizing vessel with passengers and crew still aboard.

Michelina Suriano, one of the lawyers representing the victims, said 'finally Schettino begins to pay for his wrongdoing.'

In February 2015 the captain was given ten years for manslaughter, five for causing a shipwreck, one for abandoning ship, and a further month for giving false information to port authorities.

But as is the case with most Italian criminal cases he was not sent straight to jail but released pending his appeal.

The cruise ship was heading out on a week-long cruise around the Mediterranean but capsized soon after hitting rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio.

Schettino, 55, gained the name 'Captain Coward' after it was revealed he had fled the ship before the 4,200 passengers were safely ashore.

The Naples-born captain resented the accusation of cowardice and unprofessionalism and claimed he had 'fallen' into a lifeboat as the Concordia rolled.

'I will fight for ever to prove that I did not abandon the Costa Concordia,' he said after his conviction.

During his trial Schettino was accused of showing off to his lover, Moldovan nightclub dancer Domnica Cemortan, when he steered the ship too close to the island as a 'salute'.

However he blamed communication problems with the Indonesian helmsman.

The court ruling was welcomed by a lawyer representing relatives of the victims, who said it represented justice at last.

When he launched his appeal that the prosecution also simultaneously appealed against the sentence, which they claim is too lenient and Schettino should have been given 26 years.

The company sidestepped potential criminal charges in 2013 by accepting partial responsibility and agreeing to pay a one million euro (£780,000) fine.

Five of Schettino's colleagues were also jailed for up to three years in earlier cases.

The wreckage, raised in a dramatic engineering feat, was eventually towed away to become scrap.</s>Francesco Schettino, the former cruise ship captain sentenced to 16 years for steering the Costa Concordia into rocks, was finally jailed Friday after his lengthy appeals process ran out.

Dubbed “Captain Coward” for fleeing the capsizing cruise ship in 2012 as 32 passengers and crew drowned, Schettino handed himself over to police on Friday evening after Italy’s supreme court upheld his 2015 conviction.

“I trust in the justice system; the verdict must be respected. I’m handing myself in right now,” he told his lawyer, Saverio Senese, by telephone after the verdict, adding he was standing outside a jail in Rome.

Schettino, 56, was convicted for shipwreck, manslaughter and abandoning ship after he steered too close to rocks on the Italian island of Giglio on Jan. 13, 2012, while showing off to a Moldovan dancer with whom he was having an affair.

The collision tore a hole in the hull of the 114,000-ton ship, which limped on without power before going aground in shallow water close to the shore of Giglio.

Appearing bewildered and indecisive as the cruise ship slowly toppled onto its side, Schettino delayed lowering lifeboats then jumped into one himself, as 32 of the 4,229 passengers and crew on board died.

Some were sucked underwater by whirlpools caused by the keeling ship as they struggled to swim the short distance to shore, while others died trapped in the ship’s flooded elevator shaft.

Schettino was turned into both a laughingstock and a national embarrassment in Italy after a recording emerged of a coast guard official, Gregorio De Falco, urging him by radio to get back on board to look for passengers.

“You may have managed to save yourself from the sea, but it will really go badly. ... I will create a lot of trouble for you. Get on board, damn it!” De Falco shouted as Schettino meekly tried to justify being onshore.

Schettino later claimed he slipped and fell into the lifeboat. At his first trial, his then lawyer, Domenico Pepe, said, “No one but Spider-Man could have stayed on his feet on that deck, which was tilted at 40 degrees with a slippery floor.”

Schettino added, “I will fight forever to prove that I did not abandon the Costa Concordia,” a claim that prompted further jibes from the public as his name became synonymous with cowardice.

“May God have pity on him because we can’t,” one prosecutor said.

During Schettino’s two appeals, during which he was not held in custody, his lawyers tried to blame his Indonesian helmsman for the crash and claimed the breakdown of the ship’s emergency generator slowed evacuation.

The ship’s owner, Costa Crociere, paid a fine of 1 million euros for its role in the tragedy to avoid a trial, a payment that was criticized as being too low. Four crew members and a member of Costa Crociere’s onshore emergency unit received short sentences for manslaughter and negligence after plea bargaining.

On Friday, defense attorney Senese asked to show the court a video detailing alleged malfunctions in the ship’s watertight doors, which he said contributed to the ship’s filling rapidly with water after it was holed. His request was denied.

Proof of that malfunction was destroyed, he said, when the ship was raised, towed to Genoa in Italy and scrapped.

In their summing up before the supreme court, prosecutors accused Schettino of “unprecedented negligence” and bringing “dishonor” to his profession.

Schettino was absent during the supreme court hearings, following memorable appearances at his initial trial, where he broke down in tears while addressing judges.

After the final verdict Friday, Senese said, “I am extremely bitter that only Schettino has paid for this. As always happens in Italy, we need scapegoats.”

On Twitter, Italians angrily claimed that Schettino’s 16-year sentence would likely be reduced thanks to Italy’s generous cutting of jail time for good behavior.

But Michelina Suriano, a lawyer representing the victims, said she was grateful that the long appeals process had come to an end.

“Finally, Schettino begins to pay for his wrongdoing,” she said.

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A mom demanded justice for her daughter's death in Mexico. On Mexican Mother's Day, she was killed</s>Doha - Italy's highest court has upheld a 16-year jail sentence for the captain of the capsized Costa Concordia luxury liner for his role in the 2012 shipwreck, which killed 32 people.

Francesco Schettino, 56, was originally found guilty in 2015 of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his passengers.

Friday's ruling exhausted his appeals process, with the court rejecting his claim that others bore the blame for the disaster.

Free pending the decision, Schettino is expected to start his prison sentence in the coming hours.

Schettino was commanding the vessel, which was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew, on January 13, 2012, when it hit rocks off the Tuscan holiday island of Giglio, tearing a hole in its side and eventually forcing it to keel over.

Investigators severely criticised his handling of the disaster, accusing him of bringing the 290 m long vessel too close to shore.

Schettino had also been accused of delaying evacuation and losing control of the operation during which he abandoned ship before all the 4 200 passengers and crew had been rescued.

The captain's lawyers had insisted the accident and its deadly consequences were primarily due to organisational failings for which the ship's owner, Costa Crociere, its Indonesian helmsman and the Italian coastguard should have shared the blame.

They also argued that it was not the collision, but rather the chaos that ensued due to the ship losing power that was the direct cause of the deaths. Schettino could not be blamed for the mechanical failures, they said.

Costa Crociere avoided potential criminal charges by accepting partial responsibility and agreeing to pay a one million euro fine.

Five of its employees received non-custodial sentences after concluding plea bargains early in the investigation.</s>The captain of the doomed Costa Concordia cruise liner turned himself in Friday after Italy's highest court upheld his 16-year prison sentence for the tragedy that killed 32 people.

Francesco Schettino, dubbed "Captain Coward" by the press for abandoning the stricken ship, passed through the gates of the Rebibbia jail in Rome as soon as the judges ruled.

Schettino, 56, was convicted in 2015 -- three years after the incident -- of multiple counts of manslaughter, causing a maritime accident and abandoning ship before all passengers and crew had been evacuated.

"He said 'I trust in the justice system, the verdict must be respected. I'm handing myself in right now'," his lawyer Saverio Senese said after speaking to Schettino by telephone.

Alessandra Guarini, a lawyer for relatives of the victims, said: "Justice has finally been served. I hope this brings a bit of serenity to those who lost their loved ones."

The victims included a five-year old girl and her father, a musician who gave up his seat in a lifeboat for someone else, and a woman who died on impact when she plunged from the sinking liner into the freezing waters.

"Schettino really deserved this sentence. For his lies and for the lack of respect he had, even afterwards, towards the victims of that terrible shipwreck," said Elio Vincenzi, husband of a woman who drowned.

Prosecutors argued that Schettino's recklessness was to blame for the fate of the giant ship, which struck rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio on the night of January 13, 2012, and toppled over.

Schettino was widely ridiculed during the trial for insisting he did not abandon ship but slipped off the Costa Concordia as it rolled over, falling onto a lifeboat which carried him ashore against his wishes.

In a widely-quoted phone call a coast guard official is heard upbraiding Schettino and ordering him to "get back on board, for fuck's sake" -- an order the former captain refused to follow.

The violation of the ancient code of the sea which states a captain must be the last man off a sinking ship only accounted for one year of the sentence handed down by a three-judge panel in the Tuscan town of Grosseto.



 The wrecked cruise liner Costa Concordia in the harbour of the Tuscan island of Giglio on January 16th, 2012, having run aground after hitting underwater rocks three days earlier. File photo: Andreas Solaro/AFP

During the first 19-month trial, Schettino was accused of showing off when he steered the ship too close to the island while entertaining a female friend.

Schettino's lawyers insisted the accident and its deadly consequences were primarily due to organisational failings for which the ship's owner, Costa Crociere, its Indonesian helmsman and the Italian coastguard should have shared the blame.

"Schettino is the only one to have paid a price. He was made the scapegoat," lawyer Senese said, adding that the defence team would now consider an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

The ex-captain "admits he is responsible but not that he is guilty, because on the Concordia there was a command team, he was not alone and the ship had many problems," he added.</s>(ROME) — The Italian captain of the Costa Concordia cruise liner that crashed into a reef in 2012, killing 32 people, was headed to a Rome prison after losing his final appeals bid.

The Court of Cassation, Italy's highest criminal tribunal, in a ruling Friday evening upheld Francesco Schettino's lower court convictions and his 16-year prison sentence.

Schettino was convicted of manslaughter and causing the shipwreck while captaining the luxury liner sailing near Giglio Island off Tuscany. He was also convicted of abandoning the capsizing vessel with passengers and crew still aboard.

Michelina Suriano, one of the lawyers representing the victims, said "finally Schettino begins to pay for his wrongdoing."

The wreckage, raised in a dramatic engineering feat, was eventually towed away to become scrap.
The Italian Supreme Court of Cassation upholds Francesco Schettino's 16-year sentence for his role as Captain of the Costa Concordia in the deaths of 32 people.