A JURY has found a Hampshire businessman accused of manslaughter on the Solent not guilty.
Aaron Brown, 33, of Botley Road, Curdridge, denied manslaughter by gross negligence after his friend Ryan McKinlay, 36, died in a speedboat crash in June 2015.
Mr Brown sobbed in the dock and held his head in his hands as he was cleared at Winchester Crown Court.
In a statement read outside court by his counsel Daniel Reilly, Mr Brown said: "Ryan McKinlay was a friend I've known for more than 20 years. Ryan's death will haunt me for the rest of my life. But I know nothing can compare to his family's grief.
"My thoughts are and always have been with them. Out of respect to them I will not be making any further statement."
The trial heard that Brown, chief operating officer of One Com in Whiteley, was driving a rib boat that collided with a yacht. Mr McKinlay, a father-of-one from Gosport, suffered fatal injuries.
The prosecution alleged Brown was driving the boat too quickly and too close to the yacht.
Paul Carey, 52, of Chatsworth Road, Southampton, was accused of driving the rib too fast in breach of merchant shipping regulations, and denied the charge.
He was found not guilty and was discharged by Judge Keith Cutler, the Recorder of Winchester.
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