Italian police seek ship’s mystery blonde

Italian prosecutors want to speak to a mystery blonde woman seen with Captain Francesco Schettino just moments before his ship crashed.

Schettino denies the charges of manslaughter and abandoning ship that have been made against him.

But investigators believe the 25-year-old female seen on the Concordia’s bridge just before the accident may have answers.

Britsh newspaper reports have named her as Moldovan national Domnica Cemortan.

It appears she was working on board, although her name is absent from the official list of passengers and crew.

Cemortan gave media interviews at the weekend in which she defended Schettino’s conduct, saying he had saved thousands of lives.

She also said that the captain stayed onboard the vessel until ten minutes before midnight.

Cemortan is now believed to be back home in the Romanian capital, Bucharest.

There is no suggestion that she has been involved in any wrongdoing but Italian police are keen to question her.

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