British justice concludes with the “fishing accident”

British justice agreed on Friday November 5 to the thesis of the fishing accident to explain the sinking of the French trawler “Bugaled Breizh”, which had made five deaths in 2004. It thus rejects the thesis of the submarine defended by the families of the victims.

The ship has “Sunk due to a fishing accident”Judge Nigel Lickley said, delivering his findings to the High Court in London.

Over the course of three weeks of hearings in October, witnesses succeeded in this proceeding which attempted to shed light on the circumstances in which the vessel suddenly sank off the coast of Cornwall (south-west England) on January 15, 2004.

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Final dismissal in France

“I’m capsizing, come quickly! “, had launched the boss of “Bugaled Breizh” (“Children of Brittany” in Breton) Yves Gloaguen, in a distress call to one of his colleagues at midday that day.

On board the trawler, which fished in rather good conditions, were five experienced sailors, “Riding on security”, according to their relatives.

Of the five victims, only the bodies of Patrick Gloaguen, Yves Gloaguen and Pascal Le Floch were found – the first in the wreckage during its refloating, the other two in British waters. The British proceedings focused on the deaths of the latter two. Georges Lemétayer and Eric Guillamet were reported missing at sea.

If the British procedure could not lead to the pronouncement of convictions, the families of the victims hoped that it could raise new elements likely to nourish a request for reopening of the investigation in France. The dismissal pronounced by the French justice became final in 2016 after the rejection of their last appeal.

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But over the hearings before the High Court in London, the hypothesis of the collision with a military submarine, favored by the families of the victims, moved away in favor of that of a fishing accident that would be due to a ship’s equipment which would have gripped the bottom, defended by an expert at the hearing.

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