Bayesian’s British engineer among crew under investigation

Two members of the crew of the superyacht Bayesian have been placed under investigation as magistrates in Sicily broaden their inquiry into the sinking.
Tim Parker Eaton, the yacht’s engineer, from Britain, is under investigation for his role in the sinking, which killed seven people, including the British technology tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah.
Parker Eaton is suspected of failing to ensure the yacht’s engine room was sealed off during the freak storm that struck the vessel early on August 19 off the coast of Sicily.
Also placed under investigation on Tuesday was the crew member Matthew Griffiths, also a Briton, who was on watch at the time and expected to warn of pending storms.
The two men take the total number of people under investigation for culpable shipwreck and multiple manslaughter to three.
James Cutfield, 51, a New Zealander, was placed under investigation on Monday and declined to answer questions during his first formal interrogation on Tuesday. Although he did not respond, Cutfield may be leaving Italy and heading back to his home in Mallorca, his lawyer Aldo Mordiglia, told The Times. “He is free to go and I imagine he is heading home,” he said.
Magistrates are likely to recall him as their inquiry continues but would have needed to arrest him to keep him from leaving Italy.
Mordiglia has said Cutfield had used his right under Italian law to stay silent because he was “very shaken up” and because his quickly assembled legal team needed more time to prepare his defence. The lawyer said that he expected the investigation to continue for months since prosecutors had said they want to inspect the yacht when it is raised from the sea bed.
Ambrogio Cartosio, the chief prosecutor, has said that he is determined to discover who made mistakes that led to the Bayesian sinking. Fifteen of the 22 people on board survived, including six of the 12 passengers and nine of the ten crew members.
• What happened to Bayesian superyacht? A visual guide to the sinking
Magistrates are studying whether the crew left a door in the hull open, which led to flooding, or whether the crew did not raise the anchor and turn on the engine, which would have allowed them to point the bow into the wind and keep the yacht stable.
Investigators also want to know why the crew failed to gather all passengers on deck in the 16 minutes between the onset of the storm and the moment the yacht sank. The bodies of six passengers who died were found below deck in a cabin where they apparently sought air pockets as the yacht plunged to the sea bed, 50 metres down.
By Wednesday evening supporters of the crew had raised €7,705 for their defence expenses and to support the family of the drowned crew member Recaldo Thomas.
Paul Madden, the organiser of the initiative, wrote, “I would like the yachting community and anyone else to donate to support the crew and the fellow crew member who sadly lost his life in the line of duty. The funds will be share equally amongst all of the crew to support them in the mental, physical and financial challenges that lie ahead.”