Denmark charges UK seaman over deadly cargo ship collision
Jun 6, 2022, 5:46 PM | Updated: Jun 7, 2022, 5:49 am
FILE - Divers work on the capsized Danish cargo ship Karin Høj after it collided with British cargo vessel Scot Carrier in the Baltic Sea, between Ystad and Bornholm, Sweden, Monday, Dec. 13, 2021. A 30-year-old British citizen who was the duty mate on a cargo ship that collided with another one off southern Sweden leaving two dead, was Tuesday, June 7, 2022 charged in Denmark with negligent manslaughter "in particularly aggravating circumstances" for having been intoxicated at the time of the collision. (Johan Nilsson/TT News Agency via AP, File)
(Johan Nilsson/TT News Agency via AP, File)
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Danish authorities on Tuesday charged a 30-year-old British seaman with negligent manslaughter over a fatal cargo ship collision last year, with the “particularly aggravating” factor that the suspect was allegedly drunk on his watch.
Two crew members of the Danish-flagged Karin Høj were killed after the freighter collided on Dec. 13 with the British Scot Carrier in the Baltic Sea off southern Sweden and capsized, without sinking. The British seaman, who has not been named, was the duty mate on the Scot Carrier, according to Danish authorities.
The Briton was also charged with failing to provide help or assistance to the Karin Høj’s crew. He was arrested just after the collision by Swedish police and extradited to Denmark in February. He has since been held in pre-trial custody and faces a trial later this month in Copenhagen.
The cargo ships collided south of Ystad in Sweden, close to the Danish island of Bornholm, leaving the two seamen missing. A search operation by air and sea eventually located their bodies.
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