Exclusive:
Douglas Henderson was acquitted over the Marchioness tragedy that killed 51 people on charges of failing to keep a proper lookout after juries failed to reach a verdict
The captain of the dredger that hit the Marchioness in 1989, sinking it and killing 51 people, has been fined for refusing to do a breathalyser test while on duty on a ship.
Douglas Henderson was arrested on a cargo vessel in Hull on July 21 last year. It is believed police boarded the MV Velox after being alerted by a customs officer who suspected during a routine check that he may have been drinking.
He was later found guilty of failing to provide a specimen at a police station and fined £281 on September 11 at Hull magistrates court. Henderson was acquitted over the Marchioness tragedy, on charges of failing to keep a proper lookout, after juries twice failed to reach a verdict.
The Bowbelle skipper had drunk six pints of lager three hours before the crash in Central London but insisted the alcohol had not affected his judgment. Party boat Marchioness sank before 2am on August 20, 1989, with 132 people on board, after colliding with the Bowbelle on the River Thames.
Henderson, who admitted that rescuing drowning passengers had not been his top priority, was criticised in the Marchioness public inquiry report. Judy Wellington, 74, of Greenford, Middlesex, lost her son Simon Senior, 20, a model and musician. Told of Henderson’s court case, she said: “I am horrified, disgusted. I am so hurt and upset by this. I lost my first son. He was just starting out on life. It was snatched from him.”
When the Mirror approached Henderson, of New Marske, Redcar, North Yorkshire, at his home and suggested he may have refused the test because he was over the legal limit for alcohol on the MV Velox, he said: “You’ve got your facts wrong for a start.”
When asked had he been drinking on the boat and was it appropriate to refuse a breathalyser test, Henderson said: “I have nothing further to say. Can we not be grown up about this?”
Rugby star Lawrence Dallaglio’s sister Francesca, 19, and Marchioness skipper Steve Faldo, the father of TV star Jeff Brazier, were among the victims when the boat sank between Southwark Bridge and Cannon Street Railway Bridge. The Marchioness sank so quickly that most people were unable to locate or use the life rafts, buoys or jackets.
No one on the Bowbelle was injured. Calls from the Marchioness Action Group led to the introduction of lifeboats on the Thames in 2001 and new laws on being in charge of vessels under the influence of alcohol.
