A Moldovan woman has told an Italian court she was the lover of the Costa Concordia captain, and was on the cruise liner's bridge when it crashed last year.
In the aftermath of the January 13 shipwreck that left 32 people dead, questions were asked about the presence on board of 26-year-old Domnica Cemortan whose belongings were found Captain Francesco Schettino's cabin.
"Yes, I had an affair with Francesco Schettino. But we did not see each other again after the shipwreck," Cemortan told judges in Grosseto, where Schettino is being tried for manslaughter.
Asked why she was not officially registered, she replied: "When you are someone's lover, they don't ask you for a ticket."
Cemontan's testimony is likely to reinforce perceptions that Schettino's conduct during the fatal cruise was less than professional.
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On the night of the disaster, Cemortan said she was dining with the captain and was later invited to the bridge.
She witnessed the moments before the Concordia hit a reef near the island of Giglio.
"I did not see anything because it was dark, then there was silence and he started to give orders in nautical terms, and I heard from an officer that one of the captain's orders had been mishandled.
"The captain grumbled and repeated the order. After a few minutes, it happened," she said.
"I did not feel the impact, the collision, but I saw the warning lights," she added.
Earlier, head waiter Antonello Tievoli told the court he had asked Schettino, as a favour, to steer the Concordia closer to Giglio, so that he could say hello to his family living there.
The cruise liner took a detour near Giglio during another cruise, on January 6, but the captain deemed it not close enough and ordered another passage on January 13, Tievoli said.
