Boater cleared of seriously injuring swimmer

A man who hit a tourist with his boat, slicing the swimmer's hand open and cutting two arteries, was yesterday acquitted of the charges against him due to conflicting evidence.

The incident happened in St George's Bay in May 2007 when 44-year-old Lawrence Micallef hit German tourist Christian Leiner as he was manoeuvring his boat into the bay.

Testifying, Mr Micallef said he was in the middle of the bay, about 100 metres from the swimming zone when he realised that he had hit something and he cut his motor immediately. An injured man was in the sea and he (Mr Leiner) apologised, saying "sorry, sorry", according to Mr Micallef.

He added that he was approaching the buoy to berth at the time and moving very slowly.

Mr Micallef said he has a licence to pilot vessels such as the Gozo ferry and has been involved in his father's boat business since he was a child. He had never had an accident at sea.

Asked by the prosecution whether he was travelling at six knots, Mr Micallef said that at that speed he would have cut Mr Leiner to shreds. He knew what he was talking about because his Yamaha engine had a lot of torque and was capable of pulling boats like the ones owned by Captain Morgan.

Mr Leiner denied he was snorkelling when the accident happened.

When asked if he saw the boat coming, Mr Leiner said he didn't. The boat came from the right while he was looking at the hotel on his left.

A witness, Chris Brimmer, was standing on the shoreline. He told the court that Mr Leiner was wearing a snorkelling mask but did not have the red ball floating above him, which would alert boats to his presence.

The witness said that when Mr Leiner was brought ashore, he initially apologised, admitting it was his fault, but on seeing the police and an ambulance changed his version.

Magistrate Lawrence Quintano said that whether or not the victim was in the designated swimming zone did not exclude Mr Micallef's duty to keep a proper lookout.

The sea is everyone's property and does not give boat owners the right to sail the way they pleased because they are not in the restricted zones.

However, the court said it was evident that Mr Micallef was not driving at an excessive speed or negligently.

Given the conflicting evidence on whether or not Mr Leiner was snorkelling, there remained a doubt as to Mr Micallef's guilt. For this reason the court cleared him of the charges against him.

Police Inspector Martin Sammut prosecuted.