Jo McKenna: Italy Correspondent on the investigation into the sinking of the Bayesian superyacht

The Italian investigation into the deadly sinking of the 'unsinkable' Bayesian superyacht could drag on a while.  

New Zealand-born captain James Cutfield is being investigated for possible manslaughter and negligent shipwreck charges.  

He's being advised by two Italian lawyers, and has so far exercised his right to silence.  

Italy correspondent Jo McKenna told Mike Hosking the investigation could take some time, particularly as the yacht needs to be brought to the surface.  

She says before they do that they'll have to secure fuel supplies to ensure there's no leakage, which could take several weeks.  

McKenna says it took 11 months for the captain of the Costa Concordia to be charged.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Italy Time. Joe McKenna, Good morning, Good morning mate. So
the yacht disaster we uncover that extensively last week. It
still continues on. Cutfield won't answer questions and they've broadened
the investigation.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
That's right. There are now two other crew members under investigation,
Tim Parker Eaton, a British engineer, and sailor Matthew Griffiths,
who was reportedly on watch on the night that that
luxury yacht sank off the coast of Porticello. So those
three are really being targeted by the prosecutors. James Cutfield,

(00:32):
the New Zealander, now has two Italian lawyers who are
advising him, and some of the Italian reports are saying
he's terribly upset as you can imagine, and has even
been in tears during the interrogations.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Yeah, I'm not surprised. How long does this knowing the
wheels of justice grind Philly slowly in Italy, how long
do you reckon? All of this is eventually going to take.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Well, it could take some time, particularly because the yacht
needs to be salvage, it needs to be brought to
the surface. Before they do that, they have to secure
the fuel supplies to make sure there's no leakage. That
could take several weeks, and I'm going on what happened
with the cost of Concordia. You might remember back in
twenty twelve it took I think eleven months before formal

(01:17):
charges were laid against Captain Francesco Scatino.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Okay, now Maloney's back from holidays. This where she's steering
into a camera doing the video. I looked it up immediately,
but of course she's speaking Italian, and my Italian's no good.
Therefore I had no idea what she was saying.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Well, I just thought it looked a bit strange. She
looked like she was coming back from a party, and
she started off by saying, hi.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Here I am.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
I'm back, very chatty, very lively, dressed in a beautiful
yellow shirt, with a big smile. But she did say
I've been I've had my batteries recharge and I'm ready
to get to work. So she's got plenty ahead of
her with a budget and some regional elections coming up,
so she'll.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Be busy, fantastic. And then speaking of Bridge, we're having,
interestingly enough, the same sort of debate here regional autonomy.
So the government are looking at doing deals with local councils.
They've got no money, they want to do stuff. They go, well,
look you, if you agree to cap rates and do
all that sort of stuff, we can help you out
on some of the bigger projects. Is that the sort
of thing autonomy means in Italy.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
This is about regional autonomy. It's a push by the
arguably wealthier regions in the north of Italy. They want
more control over their taxes and where their money goes.
And they're not really saying it publicly, but they don't
want their money and their taxes going to support the
poorer people in the south. What we're seeing is a

(02:38):
pushback from this federal move which has been approved in
the Parliament. Now the Campania region around Naples has far
As an appeal saying that this is illegal and so
it's far from over yet this fight.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Okay, speaking of the South, you're getting some late summer heat.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, we had a little bit of a breather last week, Mike.
Now the heat waivers coming back in thirty five thirty
six degrees in Rome and Florence, and we've hot We've
got heat warnings for Thursday and many parts of the country.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
And what can you report on your health? Joe.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
I notice you would think I was in the middle
of winter. I've got some sort of summer cold that's
been running around Rome.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Dear, will you rest up and we'll look forward to
catching up with the next Thursday. Let's not shouted very much.
Tim Parker Eaton, by the way, it's understood to have
been in charge. These are the blokes on the yacht.
Tim Parker Eaton's understood to have been in charge of
adequately securing the yachts engine room and the operational systems. Meantime,
Matthew Griffith he was on watch duty during the night,
so some questions to be answered.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
There. For more from the mic Asking Breakfast, listen live
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