Russian ship captain in court accused of 'grossly negligent' behaviour over North Sea crash

A Russian ship captain has been accused in court of "grossly negligent conduct" after a fatal collision with an oil tanker near the Humber Estuary last year.

Captain Vladimir Motin, 59, was on sole watch duty when his vessel, the container ship Solong, collided into the anchored US oil tanker, the Stena Immaculate, last March. The collision caused the death of Mark Angelo Pernia, 38, a crew member working at the front of the Portuguese-flagged Solong.

His body has never been found. Opening the trial at the Old Bailey on Tuesday, prosecutor Tom Little KC said Mr Pernia's death was "entirely avoidable," and that "ultimately he would still be alive if it was not for the grossly negligent conduct of the man in the dock".

He added: "The captain owed him a duty of care to keep him safe and the defendant, we say, manifestly breached that duty of care and caused his death. "The risk of death was serious and obvious and negligence was so bad that it was gross." The court heard that the Solong - 130 metres long and 7,852 gross tonnes - had departed Grangemouth in Scotland at 9.05pm on 9 March last year.

The two vessels then crashed just over 12 hours after the Solong set off for the port of Rotterdam in Holland. Following the collision, both vessels caught fire and were subsequently abandoned.

Mr Little noted that the engine of the Solong, with a 14-strong crew, was shut down on the same evening it departed. Restarting it would have taken about 30 to 45 minutes, and about 35 minutes to manoeuvre away from any ship.

The prosecutor then told the court that the location of the anchored Stena Immaculate would have been visible on the Solong's radar display about 36 minutes before the vessels collided. Read more from Sky News:Cowboy roofer who killed woman on golf course jailedAustralian author charged over child exploitation material "Despite an obvious collision course, the defendant did not deviate his vessel from its path and the impending catastrophe that lay ahead," Mr Little added.

"The defendant was responsible for navigating the ship, not only because he was the captain but because he was on sole watch duty at the time and ultimately, he did nothing, absolutely nothing, to avoid the collision." The court also heard that the Solong was carrying mainly alcoholic spirits and some hazardous substances, including empty but unclean sodium cyanide containers. Meanwhile, the Stena Immaculate had been carrying 220,000 barrels of jet fuel in 16 segregated tanks at the time.

The maritime company Crowley, which operates the tanker, said at the time that only one was damaged thanks to the actions of the crew. Mr Motin, from Primorsky, St Petersburg, denies manslaughter.

The trial continues..