Emily Lewis: Speedboat skipper cleared of teenager’s manslaughter

A “thrill ride” speedboat skipper who careered into a buoy leaving a teenage passenger with fatal injuries has been cleared of manslaughter.

Emily Lewis, 15, died in hospital after the Seadogz rigid inflatable boat (RIB) crashed in Southampton Water in 2020.

Skipper Michael Lawrence was acquitted of manslaughter by gross negligence but found guilty of failing to maintain a proper lookout and safe speed.

A verdict has yet to be reached for Seadogz owner Michael Howley.

The trial at Winchester Crown Court heard how Emily’s parents had taken her and her sister on the ride during the summer holidays.

The RIB was recorded traveling at speeds of 47.8 knots, which is in excess of an expired speed limit of 40 knots (46mph) which the prosecution said Lawrence had believed to still be in place.

Emily suffered “unsurvivable” injuries when she was crushed against a metal handrail while a number of other passengers were seriously injured, the jury was told.

Christine Agnew KC, prosecuting, said the boat was driven straight at the buoy for 14 seconds before the crash and accused 55-year-old Lawrence of gross negligence manslaughter.

Immediately following the tragedy, Lawrence told witnesses his face mask had blown over his eyes, she said.

However, the skipper told the jury he had lost his vision in what felt like “a split second”.

The court heard a medical cause such as a blood clot in an artery in his eye was unlikely to have caused vision loss as it was unlikely to have affected both eyes at once.

Ms Agnew told the jury that Lawrence was either distracted or miscalculated a sharp turn around the buoy.

“In either event the prosecution say that his actions that day fell far below those of a competent skipper,” she said.

Lawrence was said in court to be an “extremely experienced mariner” and his co-defendant described him as “Mr Safe and Mr Cautious”.

As well as serving as an RNLI lifeboatman for 20 years, he held a number of qualifications and was also the principal of his training centre, which held powerboat courses.

Seadogz owner Howley, 52, who was also a former lifeboatman, faces a charge of not operating the boat safely.

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