The Costa Concordia cruise ship captain has admitted he was showing off and wanted to ‘kill three birds with one stone” as he gave evidence in court for the first time about the 2012 shipwreck off an Italian island that killed 32 people.

Italian captain Francesco Schettino lashed out at a media “frenzy” after his first return to the Costa Concordia, saying people who accused him of abandoning the ship had not understood “a bloody thing”.

A trainee officer on board the Costa Concordia when it sank off an Italian island last year told a court that the captain did not fall off the stricken liner onto a lifeboat as he claims, but jumped to safety.

Francesco Schettino, captain of Italy’s doomed Costa Concordia cruise ship, has blamed the Indonesian helmsman for causing the accident that killed 32 people.