Emily Lewis: Speedboat skipper cleared of teenager’s manslaughteron February 14, 2023 at 12:45 pm

A “thrill ride” speedboat skipper who careered into a buoy leaving a teenage passenger with fatal injuries has been cleared of manslaughter.

But Michael Lawrence was convicted of failing to maintain a proper lookout and a safe speed during the crash that killed 15-year-old Emily Lewis in Southampton Water on 22 August 2020.

Emily was taken to hospital where her parents later made the decision to turn off her life support machine.

Lawrence will be sentenced in March.

The trial at Winchester Crown Court heard how Emily’s parents had taken her and her sister on the Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB), operated by Seadogz, during the summer holidays.

The RIB was recorded traveling at speeds of 47.8 knots, which is in excess of an expired speed limit of 40 knots (46mph) which the prosecution said Lawrence had believed to still be in place.

Emily was crushed against a metal handrail in the crash while a number of other passengers were seriously injured, the jury was told.

Her family were told by doctors she had suffered oxygen starvation to the brain and her injuries were “unsurvivable”.

Christine Agnew KC, prosecuting, said the boat was driven straight at the buoy for 14 seconds and accused 55-year-old Lawrence of gross negligence manslaughter.

Immediately following the tragedy, Lawrence told witnesses his face mask had blown over his eyes, she said.

However, the skipper told the jury he had lost his vision in what felt like “a split second”.

The court heard a medical cause such as a blood clot in an artery in his eye was unlikely to have caused vision loss as it was unlikely to have affected both eyes at once.

Ms Agnew told the jury that Lawrence was either distracted or miscalculated a sharp turn around the buoy.

“In either event the prosecution say that his actions that day fell far below those of a competent skipper,” she said.

Lawrence was said in court to be an “extremely experienced mariner” and his co-defendant described him as “Mr Safe and Mr Cautious”.

As well as serving as an RNLI lifeboatman for 20 years, he held a number of qualifications and was also the principal of his training centre, which held powerboat courses.

The jury has not yet reached a verdict on Seadogz owner Michael Howley, 52, who faces a charge of not operating the boat safely.

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