Salerno - Four years and nine months in prison for manslaughter: this is the sentence imposed by the Salerno investigating judge on Elio Persico, 32, the skipper of the Saint Tropez gozzo boat involved in the collision that cost the life of American tourist Adrienne Vaughan in the waters of the Furore Fjord, on the Amalfi Coast.
Persico chose a plea bargain, settling his position in the first instance in the criminal proceedings initiated after the dramatic accident of August 3, 2023, when the small motoryacht carrying the Vaughan family crashed into the sailing vessel Tortuga during a private excursion.
According to technical investigations, at the time of impact the skipper was intoxicated due to alcohol and cocaine use, a circumstance that investigators believe significantly influenced the collision course with the tourist sailing vessel proceeding along its trajectory.
The victim and the dynamics
Adrienne Vaughan, 45, was the American manager at the helm of Bloomsbury USA, the publishing house that also publishes the Harry Potter saga, and was on holiday on the Amalfi Coast with her husband Mike White and their two minor children.
The family had rented the Saint Tropez gozzo for a day at sea, paying €1.525 and confident in a safe and high-quality experience, when, off the coast of Furore, the vessel violently collided with the Tortuga, which was on a cruise with a party on board.
In the collision, Vaughan was thrown into the water and hit by the boat's propeller: her injuries proved immediately fatal, turning a holiday trip into a tragedy before the eyes of her husband and children.
Symbolic compensation to the family
The ruling also provides compensation to the manager's family, with amounts that the civil defense itself deems negligible given the seriousness of the crime and the victim's profile.
The judge ordered the payment of 4 for Adrienne Vaughan's two minor children.
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The family, assisted by a team of Italian lawyers and the American firm Kreindler & Kreindler, continues to hold other individuals in the nautical industry involved that day responsible, from the owners of the gozzo to those responsible for the sailing vessel Tortuga.
The alleged cover-up at the helm
The investigation into the tragedy has led to two separate lines of inquiry, one of which has led to the indictment, set for February, of Enrico Staiano and Rosa Caputo Rosa, partners of Daily Luxury Boat srl, a Sorrento Peninsula company that owns the Saint Tropez.
According to the Prosecutor's Office, the two attempted to alter the scene of the accident by staging the discovery of a rudder in the sea that had actually been missing from the vessel before the shipwreck, thus making the boat appear intact and properly rigged.
Investigators dispute that, having noticed the absence of one of the two rudders after the sinking, they had the piece placed on the seabed, then had the Coast Guard "discover" and recover the presumed wreck, but the level of oxidation of the metal was found to be incompatible with a prolonged stay in the water.
The other proceeding on the company
A further proceeding, for which a request for dismissal is under consideration, concerns the position of the other shareholders of Daily Luxury Boat, who are charged with negligent shipwreck and manslaughter for their overall management of the vessel and crew.
The focus is primarily on the decision to assign the role of skipper to Persico, who was formally employed with the title of "user assistant" or "customer assistant," despite a previous conviction in 2020 for aggravated drunk driving resulting in a road accident.
According to the judiciary, the company's chain of management decisions may have contributed to the risky conditions that culminated in the collision at sea, and this is precisely the point on which the remaining investigations are still focused.
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