An American convicted of drowning his wife during a honeymoon scuba-dive in 2003 left Australia on Thursday for the United States and a murder trial that could see him spend the rest of his life in jail.
Gabe Watson, 33, was released earlier this month after serving 18 months for manslaughter in a Brisbane prison. He boarded a plane in Melbourne accompanied by immigration officials and police officers, and was likely to be arrested on landing in Los Angeles, his lawyer was quoted by Australian news media as saying.
Australian authorities had demanded that he not face the death penalty as a condition of his deportation. The 33—year—old avoided being tried for the murder of 26—year—old Tina Watson by entering a guilty plea to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Chilling video footage inadvertently captured by a fellow diver showed Watson swimming away while his wife of 11 days sank to the ocean floor by Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
It was alleged at his trial last year that Watson held his wife in a bear hug, turned off her oxygen supply and turned the valve back on when she was dead or nearly dead.
The prosecution accepted a guilty plea to the charge of manslaughter on the basis that Watson had failed in his duty as a diving companion.
There was outrage in both Australia and the U.S. over the leniency of the sentence.
In Alabama, the Watsons’ home state, the bubble-wrap salesman faces trial on a murder charge.
Published - November 25, 2010 12:02 pm IST
