THE tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch(59) has been confirmed dead.
The Bayesian, the 56m (183ft) yacht on which he was celebrating a recent court victory, sank in bad weather. Five bodies of those missing have been brought to the surface. One person is still missing. Italian authorities confirmed that Mike Lynch (59) is one of the bodies retrieved. His daughter Hannah is still missing.
The superyacht was anchored some 700 metres from Porticello harbour to the north of Sicily when it was hit by bad weather and sank. It has been reported as lying intact on the seabed fifty metres down. Divers were able to gain entry through a breach in the hull.
The search for the other missing passengers continued for two days, after the superyacht sank during adverse weather conditions. One body was found early in the search — that of the yacht’s chef. Specialist divers from the Italian fire brigade have recovered five bodies.
Dr Mike Lynch and a co-defendant were acquitted in June in a San Francisco court of 15 counts of fraud.
Several of those on board, including some who are missing, were involved in his recent trial. Reports have stated that the yacht trip was to celebrate Dr Lynh’s acquittal and return from the US.
In a separate incident, Dr Lynch’s co-defendant in the trial was killed in a road collision in Cambridge last weekend. Stephen Chamberlain was similarly found innocent in his US fraud trial in which both men were acquitted following the $11bn (£8.64bn) sale of the software giant Autonomy.
Mr Chamberlain died after being hit by a car while out running in Cambridgeshire on Saturday, according to his lawyer.
There were 22 people – 10 crew members and 12 passengers – on board when the yacht sank. Fifteen people were rescued. Dr Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares was among those who were rescued. Eight of those were taken to hospital, some with serious injuries.
Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer and Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillohave also been declared dead. All were on board celebrating Dr Lynch’s acquittal in a California court in June.
The Bayesian superyacht appears to have been hit by a waterspout, or mini-tornado. But a marine expert has said that the sinking of such a boat, even in severe weather conditions, is unprecedented. The British government’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch have sent four inspectors had to Sicily to conduct a “preliminary assessment,” Reuters reports.
Dr Lynch was born to Irish parents. His mother was a nurse from County Tipperary and his father a firefighter from County Cork in Ireland.
The Lynchs moved from Carrick-on-Suir in Tipperary to Essex, where the young Mike was brought up His Irish heritage, and the fact that his parents were “poor Irish immigrants” to Britain has been alluded to in the fraud trial in San Francisco.
During his testimony Dr Lynch addressed the jury, speaking about growing up during the Troubles in 1970s London as the son of Irish immigrants — “You had to learn to run fast,” he said — and of his first job as a cleaner at the hospital where his mother worked as a nurse. “I’m still a demon mopper,” he said.
A Sligo woman, Sasha Murray (29) from Maugherow is one of the 15 survivors of the disaster. She was a crew member working on the boat.
Speaking to Ocean FM, local parish priest in Fr Tom Hever said: “The community would have been shocked to initially hear that there was a Sligo girl and most especially one from the parish involved in that terrible tragedy, but grateful that she did survive and that the injuries that she received, she will recover from.
“The Murray family would be well known in the Maugherow area, so everybody is indeed grateful that she has survived and are continuing to pray for her recovery and indeed praying for her family, whom I know were deeply shocked when they first heard of the tragedy.”