THE British Government is under pressure to hold a public inquiry into the sinking of a fishing vessel in 1991, with the loss of six lives, writes Lorna Siggins. This follows the quashing of a manslaughter conviction against the ship's operator, who has Irish links.
Mr Joseph O'Connor (44), a former resident of Dunmore East, Co Waterford, received a three-year prison sentence last year for manslaughter. The Plymouth-registered vessel Pescado sank with the loss of all six crew members on board some 13 miles off the Cornwall coast in February 1991. The bodies of three of the crew have never been found.
Last year's court hearing in Bristol heard that the Pescado, a Dutch-built beam trawler, was unstable and unseaworthy. Its crew had put to sea to fish for scallops without adequate safety equipment on board.
Yesterday, three British Appeal Court judges ruled that Mr O'Connor's conviction was unsafe, because charges against him had been amended on the 27th day of the nine-week trial. Relatives of the dead men, and the managing director of the vessel's holding company, Mr Alan Ayres, have called for an inquiry. Mr Ayres was acquitted on manslaughter charges during the trial last year.