Robert Baden Powell

A photo of the ill-fated Bayesian superyacht which was taken minutes before it sank appears to show that a door on the vessel was closed, after claims it had been left open. The snap, taken by a passenger on board a neighbouring yacht, contradicts allegations that the crew mistakenly left a door open and allowed water to flood the boat. It was taken 14 minutes before the Bayesian went down during a freak storm off the coast of Sicily - killing seven people, including the British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah. Three crew members are being investigated by prosecutors in Sicily after they were accused of leaving the large door open on the rear port side of the 56-metre yacht. The flooding is alleged to have started after fierce winds and waves drove water through the door in the hull.

Italian prosecutors have begun an official investigation of James Cutfield, captain of the superyacht belonging to British tech magnate Mike Lynch that sank off Sicily last week, killing its owner and six others, Italian media is reporting. Being placed under investigation in Italy does not imply guilt and does not mean formal charges will necessarily follow. A 51-year old New Zealand national, Cutfield is being investigated for manslaughter and shipwreck, the dailies La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera said. While the yacht had been hit by a very sudden meteorological event, it was plausible that crimes of multiple manslaughter and causing a shipwreck through negligence had been committed, the head of the public prosecutor's office of Termini Imerese, Ambrogio Cartosio, said on Saturday.

Six passengers - including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah - died alongside chef Recaldo Thomas after the British-flagged pleasure yacht capsized and came to rest on its side 164ft below in the early hours of Monday. Italian prosecutors revealed the victims were unable to escape as they may have been asleep. They had scrambled to one side of the ship in search of air pockets in a desperate attempt for survival, with the Oxford-bound Hannah dying alone in a cabin. At the Termini Imerese Courthouse in Palermo, chief prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio did not rule out homicide charges. One line of inquiry being pursued by prosecutors is whether the nine surviving crew members raised the alarm before escaping. Mr Cartosio vowed to establish each crew members' responsibility as he warned: 'For me, it is probable that offences were committed - that it could be a case of manslaughter.' He said there were 'behaviours that were not perfectly in order with regard to the responsibility everybody had', before adding: 'There could be in fact the question of homicide. But this is the beginning of the inquiry, we cannot exclude anything at all.'