Inquest into deaths of Pettistree billionaire Mike Lynch and daughter Hannah hears criminal proceedings ongoing in Italy

Criminal proceedings are ongoing into the sinking of a yacht in which a Suffolk billionaire and his daughter died, an inquest heard.

A pre-inquest review into the deaths of Mike Lynch, of Pettistree, and his daughter Hannah as well as Jonathan and Judy Bloomer, of Sevenoaks, was held at Suffolk Coroner’s Court today.

The four individuals were among seven people who died when the luxury yacht, Bayesian, sank off the coast of Porticello, Sicily, on August 19.

Senior coroner Nigel Parsley said he had seen next to no evidence for the inquest due to ongoing criminal proceedings, something he said was common practice.

The court heard from Simon Graves, a principal investigator with the Marine Accident Investigation Branch whose team is leading the report into tragedy.

He said while the investigation was in the relatively early stages, an interim report, which will provide an overview of the accident, could be available within four to six weeks.

When asked by Mr Parsley for a rough date, Mr Graves said mid-June.

Mr Graves said the report had already been drafted, and was going through quality checks.

The investigator said his team is working parallel to an Italian criminal investigation into the sinking of the yacht.

The court heard from Mark Cam, of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, who said the Italian investigation was looking at the equivalent of manslaughter charges.

Mr Cam said his investigation has taken witness statements from a number of the Bayesian crew who survived the incident, and is still looking to speak to more members.

It has received a meteorological report from the Met Office.

He asserted there was some difficulty with this as the majority do not live in the UK.

Mr Cam said salvage efforts on the Bayesian were ongoing, and it should be lifted to shore by the end of May.

At this point, Mr Cam’s and Mr Graves’ teams will be able to examine the yacht.

Mr Parsley said another pre-inquest review would be held at some point in September or October.

After a question from James Healy-Pratt, who was representing Recaldo Thomas, a chef on board the Bayesian who died in the incident, Mr Parsley said it was unlikely a jury inquest would be needed.

James Ageros KC was in court representing James Cutfield, the captain of the Bayesian.

Nicholas Cotter represented the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

A date cannot yet be determined for the full inquest, but is expected to last between five and 10 days.

In all, 22 people were on the Bayesian when it sank, including crew, and 15 were rescued.

Mr Bloomer, 70, was the Morgan Stanley International Bank chairman.

The cause of the sinking has yet to be determined.

Mr Lynch, who founded software giant Autonomy in 1996, and his daughter lived in London at the time, although he was also known to have resided in Pettistree, near Woodbridge.

He was cleared in June of carrying out a massive fraud over the sale of Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2011.

The boat trip was a celebration of his acquittal in the case in the US.