Footage purportedly shows him trying to flee before passengers

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.

The Costa Concordia cruise ship captain has given evidence in court for the first time about the 2012 shipwreck off an Italian island that killed 32 people.

The captain of the Costa Concordia cruise liner is giving evidence for the first time about the 2012 shipwreck off an Italian island in which 32 people were killed.

A university professor is facing a disciplinary hearing after inviting the captain of the shipwrecked Costa Concordia cruise liner to lecture students on emergency procedures.

A Rome university professor is facing a disciplinary hearing after inviting the captain of the shipwrecked Costa Concordia cruise liner to lecture students on emergency procedures.

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”.

The former captain of a luxury cruise liner that capsized off an Italian island has gone back aboard for the first time since the 2012 shipwreck that killed 32 people.

The captain of the Costa Concordia is to go aboard the shipwreck for the first time since it capsized two years ago as part of a new court-ordered search.

Hundreds of people were still on the sinking Costa Concordia liner when the captain fled the ship in a lifeboat, a court has been told.

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.

A Moldovan dancer who was on the bridge when the Costa Concordia cruise ship crashed into a reef near Italy, killing 32 people, has testified at the captain’s manslaughter trial that the two were lovers.

The captain of the doomed Costa Concordia hit a reef off the coast of a Tuscan island after being disappointed at not getting close enough to it on an earlier attempt, his trial has been told.

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

The captain of the shipwrecked Costa Concordia is hoping an Italian judge will grant his request for an inspection of the crippled cruise liner.

The Italian court trying the captain of the Costa Concordia heard grim details about how the 32 victims of the shipwreck drowned, some after diving or falling into the sea from the capsized cruise liner when lifeboats were no longer accessible.

The Italian court trying the captain of the Costa Concordia has heard grim details of how the 32 victims of the shipwreck drowned, some after diving or falling into the sea from the capsized cruise liner when lifeboats were no longer accessible.

The trial of the captain of the wrecked Costa Concordia cruise liner has begun in Tuscany, in a theatre converted into a courtroom to accommodate all the survivors and relatives of the 32 victims who want justice over the 2012 tragedy.

The captain of the cruise ship Costa Concordia is due to go on trial in Italy today, some 18 months after the luxury liner ran aground with the loss of 32 lives.

The captain of the Costa Concordia has been ordered to stand trial over the shipwreck of the cruise liner, which struck a reef off Tuscany last year, killing 32 people.

Italy’s Costa Crociere, the biggest cruise operator in Europe, has accepted limited responsibility for the Costa Concordia disaster, as the employer of some of those under investigation over a shipwreck tragedy in which 32 people died.

Italian cruise line Costa Crociere has been fined €1m for the Concordia cruise ship sinking which killed 32 people.

An Italian prosecutor has formally requested a manslaughter charge against the captain of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, which crashed into a reef off Tuscany last year, killing 32 people.

A federal jury in the US has awarded writer Patricia Cornwell nearly $51m (€38m) in a lawsuit against her former financial management firm and a former principal in the company.

The captain of the shipwrecked Costa Concordia has returned to court to appeal against being sacked, and said he will “certainly” take command of a ship again.

Survivors of the Costa Concordia shipwreck and relatives of the 32 people who died marked the first anniversary of the grounding yesterday with the unveiling of memorials to the victims, a Mass in their honour and a minute of silence to recall the exact moment that the cruise ship rammed into a reef off Tuscany.

Europe’s top cruise operator came under pressure at pre-trial hearings into the Costa Concordia disaster as captain Francesco Schettino faced survivors for the first time.

The former captain of the shipwrecked cruise liner Costa Concordia has arrived at a court in Italy to hear the evidence against him.

The captain of the stricken Costa Concordia cruise liner will attend pre-trial hearings this week where experts will present analysis of the events that led to the vessel hitting a rock off the Italian coast in January and the deaths of 30 people.

Experts have blamed the captain of the Costa Concordia cruise ship for the disaster in which 32 people died.

Search crews in Italy have found five more bodies in the wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, which struck a reef off an island in January.

Italian president Giorgio Napolitano led a chorus of condemnation of Britain’s failure to inform the Italian government before launching a botched rescue mission with Nigerian forces that led to the deaths of British and Italian hostages held by a militant Islamist group.

The first hearing of the criminal investigation into the Costa Concordia’s shipwreck was held in a theatre today instead of a courthouse because of high demand, with angry survivors seeking compensation, justice and the truth.

It could take experts three months to analyse the voice recorder from the Costa Concordia, the prosecutor leading the Italian investigation into the shipwreck said.

Lawyers for survivors of the capsized Costa Concordia cruise ship have pressed for new drug tests on the ship’s captain after traces of cocaine were reportedly found on a hair sample.

An Italian court has ruled that Francesco Schettino, the captain of the cruise liner that ran aground and capsized off the island of Giglio, killing at least 17 people, must remain under house arrest.

A court has refused to lift the house arrest on the captain of the Costa Concordia cruise ship that ran aground off a Tuscan island last month.

The captain of the doomed Italian liner Costa Concordia said he was told by managers to take his ship close to shore on the night it ran aground and capsized, according to bugged conversations leaked in Italian newspapers.

The captain of the Costa Concordia was not under the effects of drugs when the liner hit a rock that tore a hole in the hull and caused it to capsize near the port of Italy’s Giglio island, his lawyer said.

Unregistered passengers might have been aboard the stricken cruise liner that capsized off a Tuscan island, raising the possibility that the number of missing might be higher than previously announced.

Rescuers have resumed searching the above-water section of the capsized Costa Concordia cruise liner, but choppy seas kept divers from exploring the submerged part, where officials have said there could be bodies.

Divers searching the capsized Costa Concordia last night pulled out the body of a woman in a life vest and retrieved a safe and documents belonging to the ship's captain.

The captain who grounded the Costa Concordia off the Tuscan coast with 4,200 people on board did not relay correct information either to the company or crew after the ship hit rocks, the cruise ship owner’s boss said as the search resumed for 21 missing passengers.

A YOUNG Moldovan ballet dancer has denied she is a lover of the captain of the capsized Costa Concordia cruise ship.