Schettino having affair with RAI journalist, reports Bild

(ANSA) – Berlin, November 12 – The ex-captain on trial for his role in the Costa Concordia shipwreck is having an affair with the journalist who has been covering the disaster since its beginning for Italy’s state-broadcaster RAI, the German tabloid Bild reported Sunday.

”He abandoned the ship and now his wife” read the headline of the Bild story, which pointed out that 12 of the 32 people who died in the January 2012 shipwreck off the Tuscan coast were Germans.

Ex-captain Francesco Schettino is on trial for multiple manslaughter and dereliction of duty in the Tuscan city of Grosseto. A Moldovan dancer who once defended Schettino for his role in the catastrophe admitted in court last month that she was having an affair with him on the ship.

Investigators found Domnica Cemortan’s suitcase in the ex-captain’s cabin, and that she had not paid for the cruise.