Scuba divers in Malta have expressed their ‘grave concern’ after an experienced diver was found guilty of the involuntary homicide of his dive buddy Christine Gauci, 35, who tragically died during a dive in January 2020. Arthur Castillo, 60, was sentenced to two years in jail, suspended for four years.
Ms Gauci, a scuba diving instructor and Armed Forces Malta (AFM) soldier, who had also served a tour of duty in Afghanistan with the British Army, had been diving with Castillo at Mġarr ix-Xini in Gozo when she experienced buoyancy control issues. Although Mr Castillo had come to her aid several times during the dive, the loss of control – likely caused by a poorly-fitting drysuit with a defective, self-inflating inflator mechanism – eventually caused Ms Gauci to enter a rapid and uncontrolled ascent. She was found at the surface face down in the water with blood frothing from her mouth.
According to official reports into the incident, Gauci was certified as having ‘died from natural causes, namely seawater drowning and coronary artery atheroma’. During the court case, it emerged that Ms Gauci had complained of being tired before the dive due to having just finished a 24-hour duty shift at work, but had indicated she wished to dive regardless as it would ‘freshen her up’. She had struggled with buoyancy control issues several times during the dive, with which Mr Castillo had assisted, and one of her fins had also become entangled in a discarded fishing net while passing through a small cave.
The expert investigation into Ms Gauci’s death concluded that she had been ‘faced with the perfect storm of a number of physical and technical problems’, which had led to her becoming exhausted underwater. The report also states that she had been ‘consuming a lot of air during what should have been a fairly easy and relaxed dive,’ leading to speculation she may have suffered a cardiac arrhythmia causing her to lose consciousness and enter a rapid ascent.
There is no suggestion that Mr Castillo, himself a technical diver, had done anything to cause her death, however, the magistrate ruled that he had failed to provide appropriate assistance during the final part of the dive, leading to the judgement that he had involuntarily caused her death through negligence.
Members of Malta’s Professional Diving Schools Association (PDSA) have called the judgement ‘absurd’, and said that it had prompted some divers to consider diving without buddies to avoid being responsible for another diver’s death.
‘This sentence is a horrible precedent,’ said Mark Busuttil, vice chair of the PDSA. ‘All the divers I spoke to after the news of the conviction said they were seriously considering going solo, which would be even more dangerous. The magistrate’s decision goes against the premise of buddy diving – which is a golden rule in our sport – to always dive in groups to look out for each other.’
There are also concerns that the judgment will impact Malta’s dive tourism, an important contributor to the Maltese tourism economy.
‘News travels fast within diving communities and tourist divers will soon realise that Malta may not be the diving haven they thought it was,’ said Timmy Gambin, an underwater archaeologist at the University of Malta. ‘They will realise that they could be trapped in Malta and charged and found guilty over an accident that happened through no fault of their own. If this decision is not reversed on appeal, there could be serious ramifications for the diving industry.’
The ruling is reminiscent of the 2015 judgement issued against British scuba instructor Stephen Martin, who was charged with the involuntary homicide of his girlfriend and one of his friends after they died during a dive in Malta in 2014. Mr Martin was eventually cleared after fighting extradition to Malta for 18 months, with the inquest finding that both divers had suffered from Immersion Pulmonary Oedema, a condition increasingly thought to be responsible for perhaps the majority of scuba diving fatalities, and not dissimilar to the circumstances of Christine Gauci’s death.
Mr Castillo has indicated that he will appeal the ruling, with the full support of the PDSA.
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