Captain ‘ignored’ pleas to save men

A LIMERICK man drowned after jumping from a party boat in Ibiza because the captain ignored passengers’ pleas to stop and help, a Spanish court has heard.

Friends begged Jose Ribas, 45, for assistance after 21-year-old Brazil Bourke, a nephew of former Defence Minister Willie O’Dea, and his friend leaped from the top deck during a drunken cruise off Ibiza, the court heard.

The skipper failed to call the coast guard and sailed more than a mile back to port leaving Mr Bourke to his fate, prosecutors said. The court heard how horrified friends, who tried desperately to throw him lifesavers from the deck, found they were tied to the boat.