Honeymoon wife-killer jailed for one year

A diver who drowned his wife on their honeymoon scuba trip was jailed for just one year by an Australian court today.

American David Watson had been charged with the murder of 26-year-old wife Christina as they swam on the Great Barrier Reef.

But the prosecution accepted a deal under which he admitted manslaughter, prompting a furious reaction from his wife’s family.

Outside court in Brisbane her father Tommy Thomas said his family was in disbelief at the sentence.

“I’m sure that the entire Australian nation as well as our country back home shares in the shock at what we’ve just seen, because it’s a total injustice ... it’s ludicrous,” he said. “It’s an embarrassment to everyone involved. We believe that Gabe Watson murdered our daughter.”

Watson was sentenced to four years but will serve just one.

The couple had been married for just 11 days in 2003 when they went on the dive.

Prosecutor Brendan Campbell told the court the manslaughter plea was accepted on the basis that 32-year-old Watson – a trained rescue diver – failed in his duty as her dive buddy by not giving her emergency oxygen.

Mr Campbell said Watson allowed his wife to sink to the ocean floor without attempting to retrieve her, and he did not inflate her buoyancy vest or remove weights from her belt.

“He virtually extinguished any chance of her survival,” Mr Campbell said.

Eleven days later, a dive instructor found her lying on the bottom of the ocean. Watson told police her death was an accident.

Coroner David Glasgow formally charged Watson with murder last June. Mr Glasgow said it was likely Watson killed his wife by holding her underwater and turning off her air supply. The coroner said a possible motive was her modest life insurance policy.

Watson turned himself in last month to answer the murder charge.

An experienced diver who has since remarried, Watson had said in videotaped police interviews that Christina, a novice diver, started having trouble a few minutes into their dive.

He said he decided to go for help rather than attempt a rescue himself. One of the dive leaders pulled the woman to the surface, but efforts to resuscitate her failed.

A fellow diver told the inquest last year he saw Watson engaged in an underwater “bear hug” with his petite wife, after which he headed to the surface while she sank to the ocean floor.

Watson told police his wife knocked his mask off and then sank too quickly for him to retrieve her. But the prosecution rejected his explanation, saying it would not have been possible for her to sink rapidly.