22/02/2023 14:00 Updated with summary of court of appeal’s conclusions.
In a post on social media this morning, the buddy accused of criminal negligence leading to the death of Christine Gauci in January 2020 has announced that the sentence has been overturned on appeal.
Immediately, the reactions of friends show how much this case has been followed both locally and internationally. Initial comments by friends and divers alike, even internationally, state that common sense has prevailed.
Later in the day, Mr Castillo thanked friends in Malta and abroad as well as his family for their support.
If you would like to read on the original sentence and the reactions after the original judgement, visit our page here.
The appeal judgement may be downloaded from https://ecourts.gov.mt/onlineservices/Judgements/PrintPdf?JudgementId=0&CaseJudgementId=137220. A copy of the judgement in original form, as well as Google Translate machine translation to English (imperfect due to the complexity of the Maltese Language).
A quick read of the appeal judgement reveals that while the court of appeal did not agree with some of the issues raised in the appeal on behalf of Castillo, the court agreed that the fact that the divers were diving as a buddy team did not mean that they were responsible for the other, like for example, a case of an instructor with the victim, but instead, that they were just diving together as they had done before.
The court also agreed with the reasoning that the diving expert’s part of his report where he gave a legal opinion that Castillo was negligent should be discarded as the legal expert’s opinion of there not being grounds for prosecution should have prevailed.
The court reconsidered that Castillo did assist the victim multiple times, and also considered the diving equipment expert’s opinion that Castillo could do little to assist the victim after the uncontrolled ascent and that assisting immediately would have placed his own life at risk.Therefore the court decided that Castillo did not act in a negligent manner.
In view of this, the Court of Appeal revoked the first court’s judgement and found no guilt in Mr. Castillo’s case.
For non-Maltese readers, the below is Google Translate Machine Translated copy of the court sentence. Please be aware of the potential for errors in translation.
Additional reporting on this case has been featured on major Maltese news portals such as the Times of Malta, The Malta Independent, Maltatoday and the national broadcaster TVM.
