Six months ago our son Richard was travelling home from holiday on a night ferry across the channel. He went on deck for a cigarette and never returned. We do not know what happened to Richard. We don’t know if he fell or jumped or was pushed from the deck. He has never been found.
There was no CCTV on the deck of the ferry. If there had been a CCTV camera on the deck, it could have been checked as soon as Richard was reported missing. It would have told us where to start the search and it may have helped the search and rescue teams find him.
We don’t want this to happen to another family, that’s why we started a petition on Change.org asking P&O to install CCTV on decks to protect passengers. Please support us.
The last sighting we have of Richard is from a CCTV camera next to the duty free shop. CCTV is there to protect the goods, but they don’t put any on deck to protect the passengers. We can’t even have an inquiry because there is no evidence to review.
P&O have told us that “it would be impossible to cover all of the outside decks with CCTV”. They might not listen to one family but we know they must listen to their customers. If enough people sign our petition we will send a message to P&O that they must do more to protect passengers on deck.
We probably won’t ever know what happened to our beloved son but our loss has shown how woefully inadequate the safety measures are to prevent the loss of life on passenger ferries.
Please sign our petition and help us stop another family going through what we have.
Thank you,
Bob and Marianne Fearnside
