Lawyer, 72, fell to death from ship’s balcony on Med cruise
A TOP corporate lawyer who vanished during a Mediterranean cruise fell from the balcony of his cabin into the sea, a judge has found. Nigel Blythe-Tinker, 72, former head of legal at gaming giants William Hill, went missing from the luxurious Seven Seas Mariner last July.
He had been sending messages from the trip that made relatives concerned that he was ‘not himself’, an inquest at the High Court in London heard.
They raised the alarm when he failed to appear at Heathrow.
He had been due to get off the boat at Barcelona and fly to Britain but, despite being on board when it left Marseilles the previous day, he had failed to do so.
After his family made ‘desperate attempts’ to make contact with him, staff found his cabin empty with his ‘clothes folded neatly on the bed’.
Examination of the ship’s CCTV records revealed footage of an object falling from the ship near to Mr Blythe-Tinker’s cabin balcony and hitting the water.
High Court judge Chief Master Karen Shuman declared that Mr Blythe-Tinker met his death after falling feet first into the sea from his cabin balcony.
She said: ‘I have viewed the video evidence. Something descends from the ship at 4.28am. I’m prepared to accept that that was a body and the direction is consistent with it coming from the suite Mr Blythe-Tinker was in. The ship was miles from any port or land at the time.’
The court heard that Mr Blythe-Tinker, originally from Worksop, Nottinghamshire, had been married three times and has two adult daughters, Sophie and Claire. He had been in the process of moving back to England after living in Australia.
He was aboard the 48,075 ton Seven Seas Mariner, hailed as ‘one of the world’s best all-inclusive cruise ships’ with individual balconies attached to each cabin, when he began to display unusual behaviour and send messages in which he ‘wasn’t himself’.
The court heard he had expressed worry to his cousin Andrew Gilling that he did not have enough money to complete a house renovation in England.
He also told his cousin that he’d had ‘ a suicidal thought’ and appeared confused in messages with other family members, his daughter Sophie told the court. She brought the case to seek clarity over the fate of her father.
The family contacted staff on the cruise ship but the doctor aboard found he had ‘no suicidal thoughts’. Declaring the lawyer officially dead, the judge said Mr Blythe-Tinker ‘wasn’t himself’ and had became ‘increasingly abnormal’ during his time on the ship.
‘Miles from any port or land’