In the courtroom of the Mixed Jury Court of the Aegean, the tragic moments were recalled from Kalo Livadi beach in Mykonos, where 10-year-old Michalis Paschalakis was thrown from a water sled known as a “stingray,” pulled by a speedboat, and tragically died after being dismembered by the propeller of the speedboat’s outboard motor.

It should be noted that the “stingray” is described as “a circular recreational device with a plastic floor, equipped with handles for riders to hold onto.”

In 2014, just four days before the Assumption of Mary holiday, Michalis Paschalakis, a student at Athens College, along with another peer, was on a “stingray” at Kalo Livadi beach, while two other minors were on a second device. All four were classmates and friends who were reported to be good swimmers, according to the court ruling.

Tragedy in Mykonos: Ten years later, the boat operator receives a 4-year prison sentence for Michalis’s death

Everyone wore life vests, but as noted by the judges, they were unsuitable since they “explicitly stated on their back seam that ‘This garment is not a life jacket,’ meaning in the event of an accident, they would not keep the wearers afloat.”

All procedures were violated The “stingray” was towed by two identical speedboats. The captain of the boat involved in the tragic accident only held a speedboat operator’s license, lacking the legally required water skiing coach license or a TEFAA (Physical Education and Sports Science) degree in water skiing. Additionally, no assistant was present on the speedboat, as mandated by regulations.

On that fatal afternoon, winds blew at 5-6 on the Beaufort scale, with gusts reaching 7-8, creating waves at least half a meter high. These “particularly strong winds almost made the operation of recreational water devices prohibitive.”

About 8 minutes after starting and 400 meters from the northern coast and 70 meters from the western shore, two minors fell into the sea. Soon after, “the other two minors from the second recreational device suddenly fell into the water.”

The 22-year-old boat operator at the time did not immediately notice the children falling into the sea. When he realized it, he maneuvered the boat to retrieve them.

The captain searched for the children and asked one, who was within his line of sight, if they saw Michalis, to which they replied that the boat had hit him.

At that point, the captain “noticed blood flowing from the stern of the boat.” He cut the engine and discovered that “the boy’s body was stuck in the propeller.”

He immediately jumped into the sea and “realized that Michalis was wedged between the engine shaft and the propeller of the speedboat.” The court ruling emphasized that “he attempted to free him, hoping he was still alive, but he failed, as the boy had already passed away, with his insides outside his body in the water.”

The operator then started waving his hands to get attention from the shore, as the speedboat “lacked flares, fireworks, or any radio communication equipment to alert anyone on land.” Ultimately, a diver managed to free the 10-year-old.

The business operating the recreational water devices “did not have the legally required operation license,” nor had it obtained the “necessary rental permit from the Port Authority,” and the water device rentals were not approved “by the Maritime Police Directorate of the Ministry of Shipping.”

Change in charges In 2022, the Five-Member Court of Appeals for Serious Crimes of the Aegean found the manager of the company, his daughter (a representative and shareholder), and the speedboat operator guilty by majority vote. However, they changed the charge from “fatal exposure with implied intent” to “intentional disruption of maritime traffic resulting in a threat to people and causing death.”

They imposed a 5-year prison sentence on the manager, a 3-year sentence on his daughter, and a 4-year sentence on the boat operator.

The convicted parties appealed to the Supreme Court (Areios Pagos), and the judges ruled that the change in charges raised jurisdictional issues. They decided that the Five-Member Court of Appeals should not have tried the case and annulled its decision, remanding the case for retrial at the Mixed Jury Court of the Aegean.

The latter court retried the case and ultimately upheld the same sentences as the Five-Member Court of Appeals in Syros.

Justice served Michalis Dimitrakopoulos, the lawyer for Michalis Paschalakis’s family, emphasized that nearly ten years after the tragic death of 10-year-old Michalis Paschalakis, the Supreme Court decided that the trial must restart from the beginning at the Mixed Jury Court of the Aegean. The Supreme Court found that since the Appeals Court had altered the charge to fatal exposure rather than fatal disruption of maritime traffic, it should not have issued a substantive ruling but should have sent the case back to the lower court.

He argued that this was a legally incorrect decision, conflicting directly with the established jurisprudence of the Supreme Court, as the initial court had correctly tried and convicted the defendants for fatal disruption of maritime traffic. The change in charges was lawfully first made at the Appeals Court.

Thus, the Five-Member Appeals Court of the Aegean had the clear jurisdiction to try the case substantively, which it did legally.