Russian captain who crashed ship into oil tanker in North Sea found guilty of killing crew member
A sea captain has been found guilty of murdering a crew member after his ship crashed into an oil tanker off the Yorkshire coast.
Russian Vladimir Motin was on guard duty alone. Solong collided with Stena is spotless It anchored near the Humber Estuary at 9.47am on March 10 last year.
Mark Angelo Pernia, 38, was working on the bow. SolongHe died instantly in the fire, although his body was never found.
The Filipino man had a five-year-old child at the time of the crash, but he never met his second child, who was born two months after his death.
Following the Old Bailey trial, the jury deliberated for eight hours to find Motin, 59, from St Petersburg, guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence.
Detective Superintendent Craig Nicholson told the Press Association it was a “simple, senseless tragedy”.
He said: “It’s a miracle there weren’t more deaths or serious injuries.
“Similarly, this could have been a huge environmental disaster. Solong It burned for eight days following the collision.
“There were people on deck Stena is spotless at the point of impact. “One of the crew was changing the light equipment at the top of the mast.”
The court had previously heard SolongThe ship, 130 meters long and weighing 7,852 gross tons, set out from Grangemouth, Scotland, to the port of Rotterdam, Netherlands, at 21.05 on March 9.
With its crew of 14 people, it was carrying mainly alcoholic beverages and some dangerous goods, including empty but dirty sodium cyanide containers.
Stena is spotlessThe 183.2-meter-long ship, with a crew of 23, was carrying more than 220,000 barrels of JetA-1 high-quality aviation fuel from Greece to the UK.
The danger in the event of a collision was obvious, jurors were told, as both ships were loaded with flammable cargo.
Motin was allegedly responsible for many failures in the lead up to the tragedy and then lied about what happened on the bridge.
Stena is spotless could be seen on SolongThe prosecutor’s office said the radar image 36 minutes before the collision showed Motin doing nothing to move away from the collision course.
The prosecutor’s office said he did not call for help, slow down, sound the alarm to warn the crews of either ship or encourage the collision to be stopped as a last resort.
Dramatic CCTV footage captured the moment both ships burned in a massive fire caused by a fuel leak. Stena is immaculate.
The shocked crew on the US tanker reacted immediately, saying: “Damn… what just hit us… a container ship… this is not a drill, this is not a drill, fire fire fire, we’ve had a crash.”
Jurors heard a long silence from the bridge. Solong before crashing into the oil tanker at 15.2 knots. A full minute passed before Motin was heard to react.
Motin et al. Solong the crew abandoned ship and were put ashore at Grimsby; where the defendant sent a message to his wife saying he would be “guilty”.
In his defense, Motin denied sleeping or leaving his post on the bridge.
He told jurors that he stopped taking action when he saw the incident. Stena is spotless it was straight ahead because it was moving slowly but unpredictably.
He then made a “mistake” and pressed the wrong button while trying to retrieve the vehicle. Solong exit autopilot and move away one nautical mile.
Without realizing the mistake, he stopped and restarted the steering, he told jurors, with no consequences. Solong A rudder failure may have occurred on the sister ship, Sanskip Express.
Motin said he decided to stop the collision because he was afraid of it. Solong It would collide with the accommodation block, killing the American tanker crew.
He told jurors: “I thought the stopping distance was not enough. If I went to layover I would be endangering the lives of the American crew.”
The prosecution argued that Motin lied about what happened in Russia to “get back to his wife” and gave different statements to police and jurors.
Prosecutor Julia Faure Walker told jurors: “It was abundantly clear to him that he had pressed the wrong button and, if that was the case, how he could fix it.
“The truth is that he did nothing to prevent the collision. Instead, he encountered a problem that had never occurred before. Solong.
“There were no mechanical or electronic problems with the vehicle. Solong. The helm was working. “On March 10, 2025, the only thing that wasn’t working was the man on the dock.”
He said jurors might conclude that Motin had a “lax attitude” and “thought he knew better than everyone else.”
He stated that he closed it. SolongBridge navigation monitoring alert system designed to ensure that someone is physically alert on the bridge.
The prosecution said their failures were “extremely bad, amounting to gross negligence”.
Motin will be sentenced on Thursday.
