Captain damned over Marchioness tragedy

By ANNE BESTON and AGENCIES

A new report criticising a captain who drank six pints of beer hours before his barge rammed the Marchioness pleasure boat, killing 51 people including a New Zealander, will be referred to the British Director of Public Prosecutions.

New Zealander Dean Palmer died when the Marchioness was hit early in the morning of August 20, 1989.

But British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott admitted that there was little chance of prosecuting Douglas Henderson - whose trials for failing to keep a proper lookout twice resulted in hung juries - almost 12 years after the sinking of the Marchioness on the River Thames.

"This is a shameful consequence of the failure to hold a formal investigation following the disaster," Mr Prescott told Parliament after the release of two reports on the tragedy by Lord Justice Peter Clarke.

"The preliminary advice that I have received is that there is little prospect of a successful prosecution of Captain Henderson. However, I am referring the entire formal investigation report to the DPP for him to consider whether action would be appropriate against Captain Henderson or any other party."

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency will also review Captain Henderson's fitness to hold a British Masters Certificate of Competency.

He had been drinking ashore on the afternoon of August 19, 1989, several hours before his barge, the Bowbelle, hit the Marchioness near Blackfriars Bridge in central London at 1.45 am.

The Marchioness had been hired for a birthday party and was crammed with 131 partygoers, most of them in their 20s.

But Captain Henderson did not offer any help. He failed to radio a mayday or use the Bowbelle's lifebuoys and liferaft.

Lord Justice Clarke blamed the skippers and owners of both vessels for the tragedy. But he did not recommend any disciplinary action against Captain Henderson because of the time that had elapsed and on human rights grounds.

The captain of the Marchioness died in the accident. He had not been drinking but may have been tired by long working hours, the report found.

"The basic cause of the collision is clear. It was poor lookout on both vessels. Neither vessel saw the other in time to take action to avoid the collision," Lord Justice Clarke said.

Captain Henderson "drank more than he should," the report said.

Although it was believed that he would have had no alcohol in his blood at the time of the collision, the report added: "We cannot stress too strongly how much we deprecate Captain Henderson's conduct in drinking so much before returning to the vessel as master."

He is believed to be now serving as a mate on a non-British registered vessel in Northern European waters.

Lord Justice Clarke also criticised coroner Paul Knapman over his role in the cutting of hands from 25 bodies to help identify them without the relatives' consent or knowledge.

Hands were found in a morgue fridge four years after the tragedy.

"No one paused to consider the possibility of a deceased person being identified by dental records before the decision to remove the hands was taken," Lord Justice Clarke said.

The Marchioness Action Group, which includes Mr Palmer's mother, Angela Bensemann, welcomed the report and urged action on the recommendations.

She believed that because the victims were mainly young, some of their organs were taken for science without the families' knowledge.

In the past two weeks, lawyers representing relatives of the victims had uncovered more body tissue they believed belonged to those who died in the tragedy.

The original inquest was marked by bungling from officials who had decided that visual identification of bodies would be too distressing for families.

But relatives always believed that the real reason for the severed hands was more sinister.

"I know it happened to Dean because I was only allowed to see him from the shoulders up," Mrs Bensemann said.

"We always suspected they took organs for study and according to our lawyers, four more containers have been found with things inside."

Mr Prescott praised the families for their tenacity and courage, but Mrs Bensemann said the fight to make someone responsible for the loss of their loved ones would go on.

"We want someone to say, 'Hey, someone is responsible for this.' Not laying blame but if someone admits responsibility then you can put it right. We want to make sure that Dean's death and the deaths of the others will mean that other families will never have to go through what we've gone through."