American pleads guilty in Australian court to wife’s manslaughter during honeymoon dive

American pleads guilty in Australia vacation death

BRISBANE, Australia — An American man has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of his wife who drowned during a honeymoon scuba diving trip to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef in 2003.

David Gabriel Watson, of Birmingham, Alabama, arrived in the northeastern city of Brisbane of his own volition last month to answer a murder charge.

The 32-year-old’s guilty plea Friday in the Queensland state Supreme Court to the lesser charge of manslaughter means that he will not be tried on the charge of murder, to which he pleaded not guilty.

Christina Mae Watson drowned in October 2003 as the couple dived off the tropical coast of Queensland 11 days after their wedding.

It is not immediately clear what prison term Watson faces.