Officer jailed over fatal boat crash loses appeal

A ship officer who was jailed for breaching Jersey's shipping laws after three fishermen died has had his sentence appeal dismissed.

Lewis Carr was on duty on the bridge of Condor's Commodore Goodwill in December 2022 when it collided with L'Ecume II, a fishing trawler, killing skipper Michael Michieli and his crew Larry Simyunn and Jervis Baligat.

The 31-year-old was sentenced to 20 months in December following a trial which found him guilty of breaching shipping laws. But jurors could not reach a verdict on three charges of gross negligence manslaughter against him.

Carr appealed his sentence at the Royal Court on Thursday, with five jurats dismissing it.

Defence advocate Simon Thomas said the sentence of 20 months given for breaching Jersey's shipping laws, which has a maximum of two years, was too much for someone of good character and that a sentence of the same nature in the UK would likely be 15 months.

The defence said personal litigation should be taken into account as the collision was not deliberate.

He reiterated that the jury was unable to reach a verdict for Carr for the charge of gross negligence manslaughter as "sufficient numbers of the jury" could not be sure.

The defence recalled the suggestion that the crew onboard L'Ecume II may have thought it had its fishing lights on, making it the stand-on vessel which had the right of way at sea.

But Thomas said Carr believed the trawler's lights were off, making L'Ecume II the boat that would need to give way to the ferry he was steering, according to maritime laws.

If the jury believed the lights were on for L'Ecume II, then Thomas said Carr would have been found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter, but they did not.

Prosecuting advocate Matthew Maletroit said a change in sentence length could not be focused on just one of the breaches as it did not take "away from the overall criminality" of the collision.

Maletroit said Carr had already breached a rule before observing the lights, which was being within one nautical mile of L'Ecume II, for failing to keep a lookout and for not using technology including radars to monitor other vessels in the area.

He added the lack of technology use was "lazy and inexcusable".

Although Carr changed course too late to avoid a collision, as he was busy with other duties, Thomas said he was under pressure from his captain to get to Jersey quickly as the ferry was delayed and therefore he failed to make use of the radars and the staff member acting as a lookout.

Thomas said although he was not trying to take away from the fact the collision ended in the loss of three lives, he believed the culpability was lower because it was not deliberate.

The prosecution said being in a rush was "no relevance" to the sentence as Carr was a professional who was fully trained and qualified for the job and that he "cut corners because he was acting in haste".

The defence said before the incident, Carr had an "impeccable" work record, had been cooperative with evidence and in court and had written letters of remorse.

But Maletroit said Carr displayed "poor practice" and "unnecessary risk taking" when commandeering the Goodwill and that "he was aware" of collision warnings from the flashing radars 10 minutes prior to the collision.

This, the prosecution said, made culpability higher as he "paid disregard" to the warnings and "breached the most basic principals of seamanship" by doing so.

The court said Carr's decisions in the lead up to the collision were breaches that constituted "a serious degree of negligence", resulting in "the tragic deaths" of the three fishermen.

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