Boat owners plead guilty to student’s drowning

A FATHER and son who ran a pleasure cruise in the US on which an Irish student drowned failed to call the coastguard for almost an hour after she fell overboard.

Joseph Jay Shore, aged 65, and Cord Mitchell Shore, aged 39, of Hyannis, Massachusetts, also had more passengers on board than they were legally licensed to carry and did not have enough life jackets.

The pair’s 11th-hour decision to switch to a guilty plea in the 2001 manslaughter of Catherine Kinsella, aged 20, from Baltinglass, Co Wicklow, was confirmed by the US Attorney’s Office yesterday.