A jury deliberated for eight hours and found Vladimir Motin guilty
Vladimir Motin has been found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence(Image: PA Media)
The captain of a ship that collided with a tanker in the North Sea has been found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter. Vladimir Motin was on sole watch duty when the Solong collided with the Stena Immaculate near the Humber Estuary on 10 March 2025.
Mark Angelo Pernia, 38, who was working on the Solong’s bow, died instantly in the fire, although his body was never recovered. Following an Old Bailey trial, a jury deliberated for eight hours to find Motin, 59, from St Petersburg, guilty of his manslaughter by gross negligence.
Speaking to the Press Association, Detective Chief Superintendent Craig Nicholson, said: “It’s a miracle that there weren’t more fatalities or serious injuries. Similarly, this could have been a huge environmental catastrophe.
“The Solong burned for eight days following the collision. There were people on the deck of the Stena Immaculate at the point of impact. One crew member was up a mast changing a light fitting.”
Previously, Motin had been challenged over his failure to sound the alarm, summon help or act sooner to avoid the collision. With both ships laden with flammable cargo, the danger in the event of a collision was obvious, jurors were told.
In his defence, Motin denied he had been asleep or had left his post on the bridge. He told jurors that he held off taking action when he saw the Stena Immaculate dead ahead because it was moving slowly but unpredictably.
He then made a “mistake” and pressed the wrong button when he tried to take the Solong out of autopilot and steer away from one nautical mile away. Not realising the error, he told jurors that he proceeded to stop and restart the steering gear to no effect, thinking the Solong could have developed a rudder fault experienced by sister ship, Sanskip Express.
Motin said he decided against a crash stop because he feared the Solong would collide with the accommodation block, killing the American tanker crew. He told jurors: “I thought the distance to stop is not enough. I put life of American crew in danger if I hit accommodation.”
Prosecutor Julia Faure Walker had told jurors: “It would have been blindingly obvious to him that he had pressed the wrong button, and how to rectify it if that is what happened. The reality is that he did nothing to avoid collision. Instead he launched into a problem that had never occurred on the Solong.
“There were no mechanical or electronic difficulties on the Solong. The rudder was working. The only thing that was not working on March 10 2025 was the man in the dock.”
She pointed to the fact that he had switched off the Solong’s bridge navigation watch alert system (BNWAS), which was designed to ensure there is someone physically on the bridge and awake. The prosecution said his failures were “exceptionally bad, they amount to gross negligence”.