A BOAT owner has been convicted of manslaughter after the death of his employee in an explosion at a Southampton boatyard.
Jurors at Winchester Crown Court found Philip Wyman, 61, guilty of the charge today after nearly two days of deliberation.
They were not asked for a verdict on alternative charges of breaching health and safety laws over the death of Krisztian Takacs, 26, in August 2005.
Hungarian-born Mr Takacs had been employed by Wyman, formerly of Ranelagh Road in Weymouth, to smelt lead for a new keel on a boat he was repairing at Smith's Quay in Southampton when a fire started aboard the boat and caused a propane gas canister to explode in a 300m high fireball.
Wyman was remanded in custody and will be sentenced next month.
For more on this story see tomorrow's Daily Echo.
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