A man who was found guilty of the involuntary homicide of his dive buddy in Gozo in 2020 has been cleared by a Court of Appeal.

Arthur Castillo was, last November, found guilty of the involuntary homicide of his dive buddy Christine Gauci, who lost her life during a dive at Mgarr ix-Xini, Gozo, in January 2020.

Christine Gauci, an AFM soldier from C (Special Duties) Company, who had enlisted with the British Army and deployed to Afghanistan, before returning to Malta and re-joining the AFM. Gauci was a diving instructor and would also free dive in her spare time.

In its initial conviction, the courts held 60-year-old Castillo responsible for Gauci’s death and for assuming that she could continue to dive, despite the numerous difficulties she found herself in while in the water.

It had handed Castillo a two-year prison sentence which was suspended for four years in a sentence which had left the diving community concerned over the ramifications of the precedent set by the sentence.

The Court of Appeal on Wednesday presided over by Madam Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera however found that Castillo had neither been negligent nor had he been responsible for Gauci, and therefore cleared him of all charges.

Castillo had told investigators Gauci had told him that she had been awake for 20 hours owing to work duties prior to the dive, and that she had brushed off attempts to convince her not to go ahead with the dive.

He had told investigators that Gauci encountered buoyancy issues on three occasions during the dive but insisted on continuing each time.  At one point when he was not looking, Gauci faced issues a fourth time and shot towards the surface.  He told investigators how he came to the surface and initially saw someone in a similar dry suit to Gauci’s climbing out of the water.

Thinking it was her, he swam in that direction, only to realise that it was another diver.  He and other divers who were part of the group then started looking for Gauci, who was found face-down in the water near the rocky shore.

In his appeal, Castillo argued that the court had totally ignored the conclusion of a legal expert who had said that there was no need for criminal steps to be taken against him and that he had no position or role which held him responsible for others’ behaviour.

He argued that Gauci was a more experienced diver than him and was employed as a diver with the AFM and was a qualified instructor, and further said that he had addressed the difficulties she had faced as best as he could and that he could not follow Gauci to the surface as such was the rapidity of her ascent it would have put his life in jeopardy as well.

Castillo said that it is a rule in first aid that to assist someone else, the first aider should not put their life in danger.

In its conclusions, the Court of Appeal ruled that Castillo was not acting as an instructor for the victim but as a partner, as they had done on other occasions, and therefore was not responsible for her.

The court also agreed with Castillo that he had not been negligent in his behaviour, noting that he had assisted the victim in the issues she experienced while underwater – even giving her some of his own diving weights.

The court further quoted an expert’s testimony which said that had Castillo ascended as quickly as Gauci then there would have been two fatalities.

The court therefore ruled that Castillo had not been negligent and could not prevent the accident from occurring, and cleared him of all sentence and penalties imposed upon him in relation to the case.