Guilty of manslaughter – man who drowned wife on their honeymoon

A man who drowned his wife on their honeymoon while diving on the Great Barrier Reef was jailed for just one year yesterday after admitting her manslaughter, outraging her family.

Christina Mae Watson had been married for 11 days when she died as she and her new husband David were on a diving expedition off the tropical coast of north Queensland, Australia, in 2003. Her body was found on the ocean floor off the coast of Townsville by a dive instructor. Her death devastated friends, still buoyant from what they described as the couple's dream wedding in Alabama.

Watson's role in her death was only suspected after photos from their dive came to light and showed her lying motionless on the seabed.

David Gabriel "Gabe" Watson, from Birmingham, Alabama, avoided returning to Australia until last month, when he turned himself in to face a murder charge. He had been scheduled to stand trial for murdering his 26-year-old wife in the Queensland Supreme Court.

The 32-year-old American faced a life sentence, but the prosecution accepted a deal under which he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter – meaning that he will not face trial. Justice Peter Lyons yesterday sentenced him to four-and-a-half years' imprisonment but Watson will serve only one, with the remainder suspended. Coroner David Glasgow said it was probable that Watson had killed his petite wife, known as Tina, by holding her underwater and switching off her air supply. The coroner suggested that his motive was her modest life insurance policy. Watson told police at the time that Christina's death was an accident.

Outside the court in Brisbane, her father, Tommy Thomas, said he and his family were in shock over the sentence.

"Today he was allowed to take the easy way out. This is in no way, shape or form a beginning to get justice for our daughter," Mr Thomas said.

"I'm sure that the entire Australian nation as well as our country back home shares in the shock at what we've just seen, because it's a total injustice. It's ludicrous. It's an embarrassment to everyone involved. We believe that Gabe Watson murdered our daughter."

Watson was a trained rescue diver, making his wife's death all the more inexplicable. Prosecutor Brendan Campbell told the court that the manslaughter plea was accepted on the basis that Watson had failed in his duty as her dive buddy by not giving her emergency air.

Mr Campbell said Watson let go of his bride, allowing her to sink to the ocean floor without attempting to retrieve her. The bubble-wrap salesman did not inflate her buoyancy vest or remove weights from her belt. He did not check that her tank contained compressed air, or offer to share the compressed air from his own tank. Instead her swam off, to the surface.

"He virtually extinguished any chance of her survival," Mr Campbell said. "It must have been known to the accused that when he left her she would almost certainly die.

"It is almost inexplicable that he would make the decision to leave her."

Watson, who has since remarried, gave a conflicting account of his wife's death. In videotaped police interviews, he said that novice diver Tina began having trouble a few minutes into their dive.

He claimed that when he went to help her she knocked off his face mask and sank too quickly for him to retrieve her – so he decided to go for help rather than attempt a rescue himself. But the prosecution rejected Watson's explanation, saying that it would not have been possible for Tina to sink rapidly.

A fellow diver also told the inquest last year that he saw Watson engaged in an underwater "bear hug" with his wife, after which he headed to the surface while she sank to the ocean floor.

Alerted to her disappearance, dive operator Wade Singleton swam down and found Ms Thomas 25 metres below the surface on the seabed. Her eyes were open, she was still wearing her mask and regulator, and there was oxygen in her tank – but she was not breathing. He pulled her to the surface but efforts to resuscitate her failed.

The suspended sentence Watson received is not unusual in such crimes in Queensland.

Tina's father, her sister Alanda and friend Amanda Phillips flew from Alabama to Australia this week to be in court for Watson's sentencing. They wept as Mr Campbell recounted the fateful dive. Watson's new wife, whom he wed last August, was also in the courtroom.

The family is considering seeking an appeal.