In November, Arthur Castillo, a diver with 12 years’ experience, was convicted of the involuntary manslaughter of Christine Gauci, his long-time diving buddy. The court of appeal has now cleared him. Castillo tells Giulia Magri how Gauci’s tragic death changed everything.

Walking through Castillo’s makeshift diving studio in Naxxar, which he dubs his ‘man-cave’, it is hard to ignore his meticulous attention to detail.

What was once a garage, is now home to wet suits hanging from the ceiling, oxygen gas tanks in every nook and crook, wooden frames containing pictures of Castillo during different dives and his diving certificates and, at the back of the room, a spacious work desk with tools.

There, on his gas mixing equipment, written in black gel marker, the message is loud and clear: ‘always double-check gases before leaving’ and ‘your life depends on it’. It is a daily reminder of the importance to follow the rules and go by the book.

Castillo has attended hours of diving and scuba training and gained all the necessary qualifications to mix his own gases and dive solo.

Last November, the 60-year-old was convicted of the involuntary manslaughter of his diving buddy Christine Gauci, an AFM soldier and diving instructor.

For the past three years, Castillo’s relationship with diving and his own personal life was impacted by the traumatic incident.

“Until recently, nightmares used to wake me up,” he said.

“It was the first time I experienced an accident after 12 years of diving. I’ve dived with loads of people, different cultures, with different habits and this was my first experience. Not a nice one and I do not wish it on anybody.”

On January 18, 2020, Castillo made plans with Gauci, 35, to dive with other friends at Mġarr Ix-Xini, Gozo. He recalled how he and his partner bumped into her on the ferry at Ċirkewwa and she told them she was awake for over 20 hours.

They insisted that Gauci skips this dive.

“My partner begged her not to dive. She told her ‘let’s go for a coffee’ and ‘don’t dive’ but she [Gauci] said the sea would wake her up and do her good.” After advising her a few more times to not go diving, Gauci made her decision to go ahead.

“We went out in couples and we were the last to go out,” Castillo said.

“That is when the trouble started.”

The first time she lost her buoyancy, Castillo helped her and signalled whether they should continue.

Mourning for Christine has started now

She signalled back that she wanted to go ahead.

Another 20 minutes and Gauci lost her buoyance again. Castillo pushed her down and managed to grab her, held her against his chest, deflated her equipment, and calmed her down.

He signalled to go back but she signalled to continue.

Then, her fin got entangled in a fishing net and, after releasing her and calming her down, Castillo once again suggested they resurface, to which she agreed.

“Once we started heading back, the third accident happened and she shot upwards. It was too late, I had given her my weights.  If I shot up straight away there would have been two tragedies.”

While he performed an emergency ascent, at the same time a friend of his was on the shore and, once Castillo surfaced, he thought it was Gauci.

“I saw her from a distance. Same size, same colour suit, so I thought, okay, she is all right.”

It was only until he reached the shore that he realised it was not Gauci. His partner and his friend went to search for her.

And that is when the tragedy hit home. Gauci was discovered face down in the water, close to the rocks, with bloodshot eyes and foaming at the mouth.

Later, she was certified as dying of natural causes, namely seawater drowning and coronary artery atheroma.

“I nearly fainted. My legs felt like jelly and I had to sit down,” Castillo recalled.

“At the end of the day, this was a tragedy. I lost a good friend, we lost Christine.”

A rare picture of Arthur Castillo and Christine Gauci during a dive. Photo: Facebook

Magistrate was misled

After providing statements in front of a board, Castillo received a phone call from the police headquarters in Victoria. The tragedy was about to get worse: he was being charged with negligence.

“My knees gave in again at the news.”

He said the magistrate was misled by the court expert.

“They produced no witnesses, except for a doctor who did the autopsy. For some reason, he was giving statements on diving, even though he is a medical doctor. He decided to not speak about the fact she suffered from an 80 per cent blockage in her arteries but he decided to speak about diving.”

“I honestly believe the magistrate was misled. I hold no grudge against her, as that is what she read. If you don’t understand diving, it is easy to be misled.”

That is when he and his lawyer decided to appeal the charges.

Castillo not only found support in his partner and two daughters but also in the diving community, both locally and internationally.

“Diving groups like PADI and Scuba Schools International (SSI) held urgent meetings to discuss the sentencing.”

The implications of the sentence had huge repercussions on the community as well as the diving industry in Malta. Professional local divers voiced their concern that the court judgment would promote divers to go solo, as nobody would want to be held responsible for the accidental death of their diving buddy. 

Finally, an appeals court cleared him of all criminal liability.

“I am still digesting it till now,” he said.

“Now I am mourning Christine. I am coming to terms with her death, I am coming to terms with everything.

“I risked my life three times during that dive… I am no superhero, I did what I could without endangering my own life but, at the end of the day, we all make our decisions and she wanted to dive.”

Many asked him why he refused to let Gauci dive on her own but he could not live with that idea.

“If I sent her on her own and something happened, there is always that ‘what if’ but I can live with what happened because, deep down, I know I did my utmost.”

‘Uncle Turu’

Diving was the glue to Gauci and Castillo’s friendship. They clicked from the start (she called him ‘Uncle Turu’) and were diving buddies for two years.

“Everybody loved Christine. She was fearless, she was in the Armed Forces of Malta and she went to Afghanistan,” he said.

The two would dive together three times a week and then grab a coffee afterwards. He recalls how she would often speak about her one true influence, her father Charles.

Gauci had plans to start diving with the University of Malta Maritime Archaeology team in March 2020.

“I was a volunteer with the team and I introduced her to them. She was meant to start training in March, that was her goal in life, but she never made it.

“I made a dream come true for her, she did manage to dive once with the team back in September 2019, as a support diver, and she loved every minute of it and they loved her.”

Now, Castillo plans to organise a dive in January for her anniversary at her favourite diving spot at the Inland Sea, Dwejra.

“We would ask for a small fee and provide that sum to one of the charities Christine used to donate to,” he said.

“We have to keep her memory alive. She was always giving.”

Christine Gauci during a diving trip. Photo courtesy of Arthur Castillo

‘I would rather dive alone now’

Since the accident, Castillo would rather dive solo.

“I would rather dive alone for now rather than take responsibility for others. I am licenced to solo dive but it is not recommended.”

After Christine’s death, he lost the love for diving and his friends had to “drag him” back to the sea. 

“I would go down to diving areas just to sit and watch and I spent a lot of time inside here, with my equipment. It was a phase I was going through, trying to understand everything.

“Then I plucked up the courage, as I am sure Christine, from above, wants me to dive.”

What is a diving buddy system?

A buddy system is intended to increase the safety of scuba diving and reduce the chance of accidents in or underwater by having divers dive in groups of two or sometimes three. 

Diving buddies monitor each other, stay close enough to help in an emergency and follow a plan agreed upon by the group before a dive. 

However, this does not mean divers are responsible for each other’s life or actions.