Cool “playboy” Schettino turns up in court Image Credit: AP/Giacomo Aprili via Telegraph

The criminal trial of Costa Concordia Captain Francesco Schettino finally started this week but, believe it or not, it was suspended due to a national lawyers strike in Italy.

Schettino showed up for the first day at the theatre in Grosseto where the trial will be held and where paparazzi photographed him wearing a snappy blue sports coat, no tie, an open collar shirt and  sunglasses, according to US cruise lawyer Jim Walker.

Mr Walker goes on to say, “With his I'll-say-anything-attitude, this guy is too much.”

“On trial for abandoning ship and manslaughter with 32 dead on his watch and he appears like a playboy vacationing on a yacht in Monaco”

“All he needed to complete his image was his blonde former cruise ship dancer Moldovan paramour at his side.”

“The Telegraph newspaper reports Captain Schettino's story has changed, with his lawyers stating that he really didn't abandon ship, that he was ‘inadvertently thrown from the ship’.

Mr Walker describes this as the “latest excuse”, describing Schettino changing course from an "I slipped and fell into a lifeboat" whopper to an "I was inadvertently thrown off the cruise-ship" as a tall tale, adding, “Oh boy, What a soap opera will unfold when the lawyers come back to work from their strike.”