Costa Concordia captain 'holed up'

The captain of the Costa Concordia cruise ship that sank in one of Italy's worst maritime disaster since WWII in January is holed up in his home near Naples despite being released from house arrest Thursday. The windows on Francesco Schettino's house at Meta di Sorrento were shuttered and no one was answering the buzzer. "I don't think the commander will leave the house today. We want to avoid a media assault," his lawyer said. A judge on Thursday lifted Schettino's house-arrest order, saying he would now only have to fulfill an order of staying in Meta di Sorrento. Schettino was dubbed "captain coward" by the international media after allegedly abandoning ship in the disaster which killed 32. In a legal statement made public on Italian TV Wednesday night, Schettino denied making a dangerous manoeuvre that led to a side-on collision with a rock on Tuscany's Giglio island that tore a gaping hole below the bowline. He claimed that if he had not pulled the ship round properly it would have hit the rock full on, taking the ship down faster and causing a "massacre". The captain, who came under fire for performing a so-called 'salute' to Giglio island that led to the disaster, claimed that instead, "in that moment a divine hand assuredly placed itself on my head". Schettino also denied witness claims that an hallucination led to him veering against the rock. "What hallucination! Rather, it was my instinct, my savvy, my knowledge of the sea that made me do the sudden turn to starboard," he said in the statement, reported on the Quinta Colonna programme on Silvio Berlusconi's flagship Canale 5 channel. Schettino also denied being a coward for allegedly abandoning ship before all the passengers were off and expressed his condolences to the victims' families. Schettino is under investigation for multiple manslaughter, abandoning his post before the evacuation of all 4,200 passengers and crew had been completed and failing to communicate properly with the maritime authorities. The Concordia capsized after hitting the rock and has been half-submerged since as salvage companies have assessed how to remove it. Removal operations are expected to take up to a year to complete.