The first underwater photos of a sunken Bayes yacht appear

Following his death, US software company Hewlett Packard Enterprise has vowed to file a £3bn lawsuit against Mr Lynch’s family.

The captain of the Bayesian, 51-year-old New Zealander James Cutfield, is being investigated for multiple counts of manslaughter and causing a fatal shipwreck, along with two British crew members, Tim Parker Eaton, 56, and Matthew Griffiths, 22.

Mr Parker Eaton, from Bedfordshire, was in charge of the engine room and Mr Griffiths, who lives with his parents in the south of France, was reportedly on watch when the yacht was hit by the storm.

According to the Italian legal system, the initiation of an investigation does not imply guilt and does not necessarily mean that charges will be filed.

Mr Brown told the inquest last week: “In the early hours of August 19, between 4.15am and 4.45am, the yacht Bayesian, crewed by 22 people, including 12 crew and 10 guests, was flying a British flag and approximately 0.8 meters distant nautical miles off the coast of Porticello sank rapidly for reasons that are still unclear.

“Of the entire ship’s occupants, 15 survivors were rescued while the remaining seven people were reported missing. The searches began in the following hours and continued uninterrupted over the following days until, on August 23rd, the bodies of all the missing British nationals who were the subject of an investigation were found in the cabins of the boat.”