Jailed, death boat skipper
3 drowned as he was distracted by phone
A SCOTS skipper who was looking at his phone when his trawler washed three men on another boat overboard to their deaths has been jailed for 12 months.
David Brooks Marr made a deliberate decision and risked a collision at sea so he could look at his phone, a judge said.
The 55-year-old could and should have seen the other boat before the wash from his scallop dredger sank it, drowning three men.
Marr, of Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, was distracted by sending WhatsApp messages and following his colleagues on a marine tracker app when his boat, the Vertrouwen, sank the James 2.
Judge Christine Laing, QC, told him he had made the deliberate decision to risk collision, resulting in a needless tragedy.
Marr turned his forward-facing floodlights on in a bid to put the responsibility for avoiding a collision on to other seafarers.
But with the lights on, his ability to keep watch was impaired.
Sentencing Marr yesterday at Lewes Crown Court in Brighton, Judge Laing told him: ‘This wasn’t an error of judgment but a deliberate decision to prioritise other activity over keeping a proper watch.’ His decision resulted in the deaths of three men, she added.
The grandfather listened from the dock with his hands clasped behind his back as the judge described the three friends who lost their lives.
She said: ‘All of these men had children who have suffered perhaps the greatest tragedy a child can suffer, the loss of a parent.
‘They were all decent, hard-working family men who were looking forward to a fun night’s fishing.’
The judge told Marr he was an experienced sailor and master who knew the regulations and the reasons for their existence.
She said she was satisfied he had made the decision to take his attention away from keeping a watch to look at his phone, and compared him to a motorist taking their eyes off the road to send a text.
Marr’s boat Vertrouwen steamed straight at four friends on board the James 2 after he left Shoreham for Grimsby on August 6, 2017.
He made no attempt to avoid the 16ft pleasure boat.
Romanians Mircea ‘Mitch’ Ilie, 43, his brother-in-law Irinel Popovici, 41, and Traian Dumitrache, 51, all drowned.
Survivor Elvis Cojocariu, then aged 45, from London, was rescued after spending more than five hours clinging to a lifebuoy.