Death of Dianne Brimble

She is alleged to have been neglected and received callous treatment at the hands of passengers, and an inquest ruled she had been given the drug without her knowledge or consent.

According to news reports, security staff on the cruise ship were initially told Brimble had died of a heart attack, but there were suspicious circumstances.

[2] Newspaper reports initially gave differing accounts as to whether Brimble was partially clothed or unclothed when she was found dead.

Eight men from Adelaide, South Australia, who were travelling companions on the ship had been named by police investigators as "persons of interest" in the case.

[3] An inquest was ordered and the eight men, Dragan Losic, Mark Wilhelm, Petar Pantic, Letterio "Leo" Silvestri, Luigi Vitale, Matthew Slade, Ryan Kuchel and Sakelarios "Charlie" Kambouris were subpoenaed to appear.

The camera's memory stick had been reformatted but computer forensic experts were able to retrieve more than 150 deleted pictures from it, and consequently found evidence important to the case.

Other photographs allegedly showed Brimble later, lying naked on the floor of the cabin, having lost control of her bodily functions.

[3] According to several witnesses' testimonies, the men had spent most of the time on the cruise allegedly propositioning a number of female passengers of varying ages.

In previous testimony given in March, Counsel assisting the coroner, Ron Hoenig, described Brimble as being "preyed upon" and asserted that she was impaired in such a way that she could not have given informed consent.

At the first inquest in March, Hoenig read statements from family and friends of Brimble, citing that she was a "very moral woman" who did not approve of taking drugs or of casual sex.

[14] In September 2008, the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions announced that Mark Wilhelm, Letterio Silvestri and Ryan Kuchel would face charges over the circumstances of Brimble's death.

[16] On 21 April 2010, as a second trial began, Wilhelm pleaded guilty to an alternative charge to manslaughter, saying that he had caused Brimble to take the drug.

The judge said that the majority of the public believed that Wilhelm should be held responsible for Brimble's death, but that their view had been coloured by prejudice and hysteria.

The gathering was photographed by the media and a story ran the next day claiming that the dinner was being held to mark the eighth anniversary of Brimble's death (21 September 2002).

A separate opinion piece condemned the men's insensitivity in holding a dinner on the anniversary and questioned their lack of shame over the events of 2002.