Dancer Admits Affair with Costa Concordia Captain
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The Moldovan dancer, who was invited onto the bridge of the Costa Concordia on the night
the cruise ship hit rocks, has admitted having an affair with the Captain Francesco Schettino.
Giving evidence at his trial, Domnica Cemortan refused three times to say whether she was
having an affair, before the judge threatened her with criminal charges.
Speaking in Romanian she said: Yes, I had a relationship with him. Stop. Now, could
we please move onto more important things?
Today, I come to the process to help the judge and everyone the people who died to understand
if I couldn't help. I want to say that today is the second time I died because the first
time by dying the night of the crash with my psychological brain and problems, and today
I die the second time because of course, people find out something that I tried to hide for
two years from my life because this is my private life, and I have a baby and this was
necessary for me to hide.
The captain has acknowledged fault in the trial, but his defence team is arguing the
ship sank in part because watertight doors did not function properly. 32 people were
killed when the cruise ship hit rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio in January 2012.
Captain Schettino faces multiple charges of manslaughter and abandoning ship. If convicted
he could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.
