Dive death ... Gabe and Tina Watson on their engagement. |
- David Gabe Watson jailed
- Sentence angers family
- Disabled man's torturer, killer jailed
AN American man has been jailed for four-and-a-half years after admitting to killing his wife while scuba diving on their honeymoon in north Queensland.
David Gabriel Watson, 32, pleaded guilty today in the Supreme Court in Brisbane to the manslaughter of his wife, Christina, while scuba diving on their honeymoon in north Queensland in October 2003.
Justice Peter Lyons sentenced Watson to four-and-a-half years in jail, suspended after 12 months.
He had been charged with murder, to which he pleaded not guilty, but Crown prosecutors accepted the plea to the lesser charge, meaning he will not face trial.
Christina's father Tommy Thomas said his family was in disbelief that the murder charge was not maintained.
"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.
"Today he (Watson) was allowed to take the easy way out.
"This is in no way, shape or form a beginning to get justice for our daughter.
"It's an embarrassment to everyone involved.
"We believe that Gabe Watson murdered our daughter."
Prosecutor Brendan Campbell told the court the manslaughter plea was accepted on the basis that Watson had failed in his duty as Tina's dive buddy by not giving her emergency oxygen.
Mr Campbell said Watson also allowed Tina to sink to the ocean floor without making any serious attempt to retrieve her, and that he did not inflate her buoyancy vest or remove weights from her belt.
"He virtually extinguished any chance of her survival,'' Mr Campbell said.
Watson married Tina in a ceremony described by her friends as her dream wedding in Birmingham, Alabama, on October 11, 2003.
Eleven days later, a dive instructor found her lying on the bottom of the ocean during a week-long Great Barrier Reef scuba diving trip off the coast of Townsville.
A coronial inquest into her death heard a fellow diver saw Gabe Watson engaged in an underwater "bearhug'' with his petite wife, after which the bubble-wrap salesman headed for the surface while his wife fell to the ocean floor.
Coroner David Glasgow formally charged Watson with murder last June and the American voluntarily returned to Australia in February.
The Supreme Court was today told Watson was an experienced diver who had been trained in rescuing panicked divers.
Watson told police Tina had knocked his mask off and then had sunk too quickly for him to retrieve her.
But the Crown rejected this explanation, saying it would not have been possible for her to sink rapidly.
Tina's father, her sister Alanda and friend, Amanda Phillips, flew from Alabama to Australia this week to be in court for Watson's sentencing.
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Can you imagine being newly married, having your dream wedding and a dream honeymoon and the man that promised not days earlier to take care of you and protect you and keep you safe is the very reason you are not alive to witness other life milestones? This story has made me so sad...I put myself in her position and when/if she was struggling she prob expected her husband to be in fear for her life and do everything humanly possible to save her and even if he has to risk his own life, get her to the surface...but I wonder what went through her mind those last few seconds. Did she feel betrayed? Did she know what was going on?
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Sarah of Riverina, NSW