An Italian court sentenced the former captain of the Costa Concordia cruise liner to 16 years in prison on Wednesday for his role in the 2012 shipwreck that killed 32 people off the Tuscan holiday island of Giglio.
Francesco Schettino was commanding the vessel, a floating hotel as long as three soccer pitches, when it came too close to shore and hit rocks off the island, tearing a hole in its side.
Schettino was convicted of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his passengers in one of the highest-profile shipping disasters in recent years.