16 2GM Thursday August 6 2020 | the times
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However, the company, which was
hired to manage the transport of My
Song on the cargo vessel, has blamed
the yacht’s owner for the accident. “The
primary assessment is that the yacht’s
cradle — owned and provided by the
yacht, warranted by the yacht for sea
transport and assembled by the yacht’sThe former wife of a Methodist minis-
ter has been spared jail for trying to
smear her ex-husband as a sex abuser
after a judge ruled that a prison sen-
tence would not halt her vendetta.
Jean Gibbs, 60, tried to destroy the
reputation of the Rev Charlie Gibbs, 70,
as part of an “obsessive campaign” to
prevent him from seeing their children,
which began in 2001.
In 2017 she was jailed for nine months
by a High Court judge for refusing to
stop making false claims about her ex-
husband. After serving the sentence
Gibbs breached a court order by send-
ing emails claiming that he had abused
their son, who is now an adult.
Mr Gibbs, who retired as Methodist
minister in St Mary’s on the Isles of Scil-
ly four years ago, took legal action ask-
along a 500m length of riverbank.
Large amounts of debris including bro-
ken bottles, plastic bottles and bags, dis-
posable barbecues, wet wipes and used
toilet paper had been abandoned there
when people left.
Bellever has ancient monuments and
field systems which are internationally
important. Bronze Age hut circles there
are 3,000 years old but the lighting of
fires and moving of stones poses a
threat to them.
The camping ban comes into force
from today and will last for 27 days.
National park marshals will be em-
ployed to help Dartmoor’s rangers en-
force the ban, supported by funding
from the Devon and Cornwall police
and crime commissioner.crew — collapsed during the voyage,”
the firm said.
Peters & May and Weco, the cargo
ship owner, claim that the English court
should rule over the row.
Lawyers for Mr Loro Piana argued in
London that the case should be allowed
to continue in Italy. His lawyers said acourt in Milan was set to hear the next
stage in September. It is thought Mr
Loro Piana may appeal against the
London ruling.
In a recent interview, he said he was
looking for a smaller boat to race but
not cruise. “My ideal boat is the one I
lost,” he said.Shortly before setting out on its
ill-fated trip to the Mediterranean, the
£25 million superyacht had been the
kind of place you would find actors,
supermodels and socialites rubbing
shoulders.
On the exclusive Caribbean island of
Saint Barthélemy, the yacht, owned by
Luigi Loro Piana, 68, an Italian playboy
and cashmere tycoon, was the centre-
piece of his marketing blitz at the Bucket
Regatta, with cocktail parties, a band
and celebrities galore.
The regatta over and the last gallon
of rosé drunk, the yacht, My Song, left
Antigua for Genoa so that it could grace
the next leg of Mr Loro Piana’s social
season at another regatta, in Porto
Cervo, northern Sardinia, in June.
Soon, however, disaster struck. The
High Court in London has heard that
My Song fell from its cradle on a cargo
ship between Mallorca and Genoa in
rough weather in May last year. With
large holes in the hull, the carbon fibre
yacht was part-submerged with its mast
missing. It was beyond repair, Mr Loro
Piana was told, despite it being floated
and dragged by a German salvage
company to Mallorca.
Mr Loro Piana has been embroiled in
a battle to recoup the cash lost when
the 130ft yacht plunged into the
sea. He had tried to sue the British
logistics company he blamed for
its loss in the Italian courts.
The case has found its way to
the Royal Courts of Justice. Yester-
day Judge Christopher Hancock,
QC, ruled that Mr Loro
Piana must come to
London to continue to
fight his claim.
Mr Loro Piana,
who is said to be
worth £1.2 billion, is
referred to as the
“king of cashmere”
by the fashion
magazine Vogue.
Before the yacht’s
demise, one Vogue
writer enthused
over a weekend
spent on My Song
that included fellow
“sailors” such as the
Peaky Blinders
actress Annabelle
Wallis and the
Czech model and ac-
tress Karolina Kurko-
va. The writer noted that
while My Song managed
only third place in that re-
gatta, “the day certainly felt
like a triumph to us”.
Mr Loro Piana was
greatly attached to
My Song. “For any-
one who loves the
sea, this boat is like
a second home,
and it is as if my
home has burnt
down,” he told La
Repubblica. “We
decided to trans-
port it on a cargo
ship to be sure it
wasn’t damaged
because you can
never be sure of the
weather.”
He began a lawsuit
in Milan against
Peters & May, a
Southampton logis-
tics firm specialising
in moving yachts, for
damages equal to the
value of the vessel.Jail ‘wouldn’t stop ex-wife’s vendetta’
ing for her to be jailed again for con-
tempt of court. However, Mrs Justice
Lieven told the Family Division of the
High Court that another jail term
would not halt her campaign.
The judge decided that the best way
to protect Mr Gibbs was to publish a
ruling that showed “the truth”.
“I am confident that if I send her to
prison, for however long, when she
comes out she will continue her vendet-
ta against Mr Gibbs,” she added.
“I therefore consider the more effec-
tive remedy for Mr Gibbs is for me to
publish a full and detailed judgment,
with an executive summary, so that he
can distribute this to anyone who has
been sent Mrs Gibbs’s allegations.”
Mrs Justice Lieven said that Gibbs’s
smears had had a “devastating impact”
on her ex-husband.
“Mr Gibbs applied to commit MrsGibbs to prison for breaching two
orders of the court that she should not
publish allegations that he had abused
their son 20 years ago,” she said.
“Mrs Gibbs accepted that she had
breached the orders on very many
occasions but said that she had a
reasonable excuse for doing so, arguing
that the allegations are all true.
“I have come to the clear conclusion
that Mrs Gibbs’s allegations are not
true. She has for many years... been
conducting an obsessive campaign
against her ex-husband.
“She frequently distorts the truth and
alleges that various people have
believed her when on examination this
is not true.”
The judge ordered Gibbs, of Attle-
borough, Norfolk, to sell her house to
raise funds to cover her ex-husband’s
£30,000 legal costs.Camping ban after visitors
turn Dartmoor into dump
Will Humphries
Southwest CorrespondentDartmoor has banned wild camping on
a Bronze Age site after visitors left tents,
human waste, fire pits and broken bot-
tles to be cleared up by park rangers.
The national park authority has in-
troduced powers under the Dartmoor
Commons Act to stop people treating
Bellever and Riddon Ridge as an in-
formal campsite for the next month.
Forestry England said that it had col-
lected and removed more dumped
waste in the past few weeks than it
would usually see in a whole year.
On one night in July, 70 tents were re-
corded at Riddon Ridge.
A total of 50 fire pits were countedBillionaire’s strife on the ocean waves
Luigi Loro Piana’s £25 million superyacht My Song before and, top, after it plunged from a cargo ship,
damaging it beyond repair. The yacht hosted celebrities such as Karolina Kurkova, right with friendsSTUDIO BORLENGHI/ALEA/GETTY IMAGESth nextJonathan Ames Legal Editor
Greg Wilford