Manslaughter charges count reduced

PAPUA NEW GUINEA – A judge has significantly reduced the number of manslaughter charges against the Australian owner of a ferry that sank off Papua New Guinea more than four years ago, killing scores of people.

Peter Sharp, the managing director of Rabaul Shipping, had been charged with 172 counts of manslaughter after the Rabaul Queen sank off PNG’s north coast in 2012.

A Commission of Inquiry, set up shortly after the disaster, found the ship capsized after being hit by three large waves.

It found at least 140 people were killed but said the exact number of fatalities could not be determined because the crew did not compile a manifest.

On the opening day of the trial, the judge at the Kokopo National Court reduced the number of charges laid against Sharp from 172 to 88 after his lawyers produced a manifest in court.

As well as manslaughter charges, Sharp and the ferry’s captain Anthony Tsiau are standing trial for one count each of sending an unworthy vessel out to sea.

Sharp, an Australian expatriate based in PNG, has pleaded not guilty. The Rabaul Queen was overloaded when it sank en route from Kimbe to Lae on February 2, 2012.

The trial is expected to last about two weeks. - RNZI