Inquest
Eight men from Adelaide, South Australia who were travelling companions on the ship had been named by police investigators as "persons of interest" in the case. An inquest was ordered and the eight men, Dragan Losic, Mark Wilhelm, Petar Pantic, Letterio "Leo" Silvestri, Luigi Vitale, Matthew Slade, Ryan Kuchel and Sakelarios "Charlie" Kambouris were subpoenaed to appear.
The inquest began in March 2006. An attempt by Wilhelm's attorney to challenge the inquest was rejected, and Wilhelm has been ordered by Deputy State Coroner Jacqueline Milledge to appear when called. Mark Brimble, the ex-husband of Dianne Brimble, represented the family at the inquest and asked questions of witnesses. Other Pacific Sky passengers and personnel had already made statements.
The memory stick from a camera owned by one of the men, "Charlie" Kambouris, handed in as lost property, had been stolen by a P&O employee who later turned it over to police once he realised that pictures of Brimble and the men of interest were on it. The camera's memory stick had been reformatted but computer forensic experts were able to retrieve more than 150 deleted pictures from it, and by doing so found evidence important to the case. The photographs have not been released to the media because they are considered too graphic. Wilhelm claimed that the sex was consensual and several photographs appear to support this. Other photographs allegedly showed Brimble later, lying on the floor of the cabin in a naked state, having lost control of her bodily functions.
According to several witnesses' testimonies, the men had spent most of the time on the cruise allegedly propositioning a number of female passengers of varying ages. Among numerous acts of alleged sexual harassment were asking a 15-year-old to do an erotic dance in their cabin for cash, entering a cabin of four girls uninvited, asking if they were going to the disco where they 'could go down on them' and asking one woman if he could perform oral sex on her among others.
The inquest heard the initial interview that Silvestri had given police in New Caledonia. The interview was taken two days after Brimble's death. At that time, Silvestri denied any involvement with Brimble. During the interview, Silvestri spoke of Brimble in disparaging terms, saying "she smelt, she was black and she was ugly." Silvestri also described her as "desperate", "a yuck-ugly dog" and a "fat thing." Silvestri told the police interviewers he was angry because Brimble "fucked up his holiday" by dying in his cabin. According to police witness statements, Silvestri allegedly said to another cruise passenger, Allison McKain, that "The bitch is dead, the fucking bitch is dead. Some shit went down last night, some top secret shit," and that a woman had died, naked on the floor of their cabin. Several passengers related how Silvestri had told them that the group had considered throwing Brimble overboard. At least ten passengers saw Brimble, having lost control of her bodily functions, lying unconscious and naked on the cabin floor, including several women Wilhelm specifically invited into the cabin to see her in that state. When the group realised something was wrong they washed and dressed Brimble before calling for help. Later, when medical officers attempted to resuscitate Brimble, Silvestri told the ships purser to "get the bitch out of my room."
Silvestri told the coronial court that Kuchel told him that Mark Wilhelm had given Brimble the drug, and that she took it willingly with full informed consent. However, Wilhelm had written in a signed statement given to a P&O security chief that he had not given any drugs to anyone. In previous testimony given in March, Counsel assisting the coroner, Ron Hoenig, described Brimble as being "preyed upon" and asserted that she was impaired in such a way that she could not have given informed consent. At the first inquest in March, Hoenig read statements from family and friends of Brimble, citing that she was a "very moral woman" who did not approve of taking drugs or of casual sex. Both Mark Brimble and David Mitchell, her partner of 14 years, gave evidence to the court pertaining to Dianne Brimble's character. However, evidence was tendered by Brimble's doctor that she had recently been prescribed the morning after pill and had previously had an HIV test for an indiscretion. In addition, the recovered photographs showed Brimble fully conscious having sex with Wilhelm.
Police tapped the telephones of the eight named "men of interest" for six months. Investigators heard nothing incriminating and came to the conclusion that the men did not have the "mongrel instinct" to stick to a fabricated story. However, the men frequently spoke of themselves being the victims, boasted about the media coverage and discussed how to make money from the case, ideas put forward included selling the story to the media, setting up a fee-for-access website and offering to tell police the truth in return for payment.
State Coroner Jacqueline Milledge is expected to hand down the findings of the inquest on 30 November 2010.
Read more about this topic: Death Of Dianne Brimble