Father of drowned woman may sue boat operators over death

A HEARTBROKEN father, who watched two cruise boat operators walk free from court after they were convicted of manslaughter in the drowning death of his daughter, may sue the men in a civil action.

Joseph Kinsella said the loss of his student daughter, Catherine, 20, in the accident off Cape Cod in the US, where she was on a summer working holiday, was a “tragedy that should never have happened”.

Struggling to hold back tears in court in Boston as he told the sentencing judge about Catherine, Mr Kinsella, described her as a giving person who led the way for her four younger siblings. “We did all we could for her and she repaid us one hundred-fold. Life will never be the same for us or our family”, he said.

Mr Kinsella, from Baltinglass, Co Wicklow, and three of his other children attended court to give victim impact testimony. Catherine’s mother, Maria, was too upset to attend.

The family were travelling back to Ireland yesterday amid newspaper reports in Boston that papers had been filed in court with a view to a multi-million dollar legal suit against the boat’s owners and the men held responsible for Catherine’s death.

But a relative expressed surprise at the reports, saying the family had gone to Boston without having made any decision whether to pursue the matter further before they knew the outcome of the sentencing hearing.

Catherine, known as Kate, was training in Dun Laoghaire to be a Montessori teacher.

She and a group of friends were among 60 young people on board the 60-ft Sea Genie II cruiser chartered by Joseph Shore, 65, and his son, Cord Shore, 39, for an evening buffet cruise around Hyannisport on July 22, 2001.

Catherine fell through a gap on the deck’s guard railing, broken in a collision with another vessel earlier in the trip. Witnesses told investigators that as she cried out for help, the Shores gave orders to toss cans and bottles overboard as they did not have a drinks licence and many of the passengers were under age.

The pair made a limited attempt to locate Catherine, but they did not call out the coastguard for 50 minutes. Although rescuers promptly found her, she could not be resuscitated.

The two men initially denied the charge of manslaughter, which carried a potential 10-year prison sentence, but changed their plea in a deal struck with prosecutors days before they were due to go on trial in June this year.

In court for sentencing this week, prosecutors sought a four-month jail sentence for the boat’s captain, Joseph Shore, and six months for Cord Shore.

Judge Rya Zobel rejected the prosecution arguments, saying the defendants were “not cruel, mean or evil” and had acknowledged their role in Catherine’s death by pleading guilty.

She placed them both on three years’ probation, the first six months of which is to be served under a home detention programme. She also fined them $10,000 each and ordered that they jointly pay $18,700 damages to the Kinsella family and $21,600 funeral costs.

Both men apologised in court to the Kinsella family. “That night should never have happened and that pain will live with me forever. I’m truly sorry,” said Cord Shore.