A man who was found guilty of manslaughter over the drowning death of his wife on their honeymoon looks set to serve just one year in prison.
Christina Mae Watson of Birmingham, Alabama died on her honeymoon in Queensland, Australia after just 11 days of marriage while she was diving with her husband. Her husband, David Watson, was originally charged with murder after coroner David Glasgow posited that it was likely that Watson had likely killed his wife by turning off her air supply, before letting her sink to the ocean floor. He suggested that Watson turned her air supply back on after she lost consciousness. Glasgow stated that a possible motive for murder was a modest life insurance policy of which David Watson was the sole beneficiary. If found guilty, he faced the possibility of life in prison.
At what was to be a murder trial, the prosecution accepted a guilty plea to a lesser charge of manslaughter. This meant that David Watson, a trained rescue diver, had to acknowledge that he had failed in his duty to provide his dive buddy with emergency air (a relatively simple procedure that all certified divers are trained to perform). He was then sentenced to four-and-a-half-year in prison, which is to be suspended after he serves 12 months.
Christina Watson’s father, Tommy Thomas, shared his views on the verdict with the press:
I’m sure that the entire Australian nation as well as our country back home shares in the shock at what we’ve just seen, because it’s a total injustice … it’s ludicrous.
It’s an embarrassment to everyone involved. We believe that Watson murdered our daughter
