News / Jailed for six months over role in fatal incident
THE MASTER of a Shetland shellfish boat has been jailed for six months after admitting failing to preserve his friend and crewman’s life by neglecting to keep a proper lookout before the vessel hit rocks and sank off West Burrafirth.
Thirty nine year old Christopher Smith of Glenburn Road, Hamnavoe, Burra, appeared for sentencing at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Wednesday having previously pleaded guilty to the offence last month.
In September the court heard how the Lerwick-registered wooden boat Diamond struck a rock in the early hours of 25 March 2014 and sank.
Both Smith and his friend, 40 year old Lerwick man Leonard Scollay, were recovered from the water but Scollay died as a result.
Defence agent Martin Morrow explained that, around the time the incident occurred, something had gone wrong in the engine room relating to fuel supply pipes. Fuel was pouring out onto hot engine components and Smith was concerned about the danger of fire.
Tragically, there had been a miscalculation and when he came back on deck and realised the boat was off course it was too late to prevent it striking a submerged rock.
Morrow said that his client’s primary concern in the 18 months they have been discussing the incident was that he had caused his friend’s death and how that would impact on Scollay’s family.
Smith has lost a “significant amount of weight”, has not worked for the last two and a half years and has been mired in a “steep, steep depression”. When he does leave the house he feels as if he is “skulking around and shouldn’t be there”.
He has also had a relapse into substance misuse for which he is seeking help.
Morrow said it was an “unquestionably difficult” for the court, but asked Sheriff Philip Mann to take into account that it had been “an error of judgement … against a backdrop of trying to deal with the situation under deck”.
Sheriff Mann said that Smith had pleaded guilty to a “very serious charge” of failing to keep a proper lookout. “Unfortunately Mr Scollay lost his life; you fortunately survived,” the sheriff said.
He said there as no getting away from the fact that the death would “most likely not have occurred” but for Smith’s neglect of duty.
The sheriff said no sentence he could impose would “bring Mr Scollay back or lessen the grief” felt by his family, but by passing sentence he was “not engaged in trying to place a value on Mr Scollay’s life” as that would be impossible.
He said Smith’s priority clearly should have been navigating the vessel safely as failing to do so “carried a very high risk of disaster” and it amounted to a “very serious error of judgement”.
Sheriff Mann acknowledged that Smith was “truly remorseful over the death of your friend”.
Smith was handed a six-month jail term – reduced from nine months to reflect his guilty plea.
An MAIB investigation in February 2015 concluded that the use of heroin played a part in the incident and that both men were “intoxicated by illegal and controlled drugs” that left their ability to function “significantly impaired”.
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