The captain of the Costa Concordia cruise liner has been jailed for 16 years after being found guilty of multiple manslaughter.
Judges have ruled that Francesco Schettino was responsible for the deaths of 32 people after the ship smashed into rocks off Giglio island in January 2012.
The 54-year-old is expected to appeal the decision, which means it could be years before he is actually jailed for the crime. Prosecutors have requested that Schettino is imprisoned immediately.
Widely dubbed "Captain Coward" in the Italian media, the 54-year-old was captured on video abandoning the ship following the collision.The captain of the stricken Costa Concordia has told his trial "a part of me died" on the night of the disaster - as judges retire to consider their verdicts.
Francesco Schettino wept in court as he addressed three judges earlier today.
He claimed the blame for the disaster that killed 32 people lay with his employer Costa Cruises and said the media had portrayed him unfairly.
He said: "In this court a lot of words have been said to destroy my dignity. This media circus is violent. It's not life any more for me.
"I want to say that on 16 January a part of me died."
Schettino was charged with manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and leaving the liner ahead of some of the passengers when it hit rocks and capsized off the island of Giglio in 2012.
Lawyers spent Wednesday morning summing up the case in court in Grosseto, Tuscany, where the trial began in July 2013.
Lead defence lawyer Domenico Pepe said his client was "the victim of a legal and media circus", who had suffered a lot of pain since the disaster.
"Titanic affair"
On Tuesday, prosecutor Stefano Pizza called the captain's conduct "reprehensible" and said: "It was a Titanic affair that merits adequate punishment."
He said: "There is a tsunami of evidence against Francesco Schettino but he has admitted to nothing.
"It would be easier for a lawyer to fly than to defend Schettino."
Schettino, 54, claimed equipment failures complicated the situation on the sinking vessel and he held off calling the evacuation because he wanted to avoid people panicking and jumping into the sea.
Helicopters plucked survivors off the stranded 290-metre vessel while Schettino - dubbed Captain Coward by some newspapers - was already safely ashore.
A salvage operation costing hundreds of millions of pounds refloated and towed the ship away from Giglio in July 2014. Video showed the damage that was done to the ship:
