The captain of the ship-wrecked Costa Concordia has been found guilty of manslaughter.
CNN reported that the 19-month long trial came to an end when a panel of three judges found Francesco Schettino guilty and sentenced him 16 years in an Italian prison.
The sentence is, however, far less than the 26 years prosecutors were seeking.
As previously noted, on Jan. 13, 2012, the Costa Concordia hit a rock on a jagged reef in the Tyrrhenian Sea off Italy’s western coast. The contact tore a gash in the ship causing the engine room to flood, which then triggered power outages. Under Schettino’s command, the cruise ship drifted back to Giglio Island, where it eventually ended up on its side in shallow waters.
The captain did not give any abandoned ship call until one hour after the ship hit the reef.
Schettino was accused of taking the cruise ship too close to shore and abandoning the boat while all the passengers and some crew members were still on board. He repeatedly denied those allegations and claimed that he was a scapegoat.
The families of the 32 victims who died in the tragedy and now the court see it differently.