A yachtsman involved in a double tragedy has broken his silence on the affair in an exclusive interview with his local paper.

The East Anglian Daily Times carried Colin Jessey’s story over two days, starting on Monday with a Page 1 lead and three inside pages.

Two crew members died after being swept overboard from Mr Jessey’s yacht during a trip from Suffolk to Newcastle in April, 1998. Mr Jessey was charged with manslaughter and faced two crown court trials before being found not guilty in January of any criminal offence.

He remained silent for almost two years after the accident but spoke publicly for the first time in the interview with EADT reporter Cathy Brown.

Editor Terry Hunt said: “We were the only paper he would talk to, because he’s local and trusts his local paper.

“We had asked him immediately after the court case and he wanted the dust to settle but was eventually quite happy to speak to us.”There is lot of interest in sailing around here – we’ve got about 120 miles of our coastline on our patch – so it was a good read and well-read.”

Cathy Brown is a sailor herself and knew Mr Jessey of old, having written personality pieces about him.

“It was a case of good old-fashioned contacts smoothing the way to a very good interview,” Mr Hunt said.

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