Murder charge reduced in Cuba catamaran sinking case

Lewis Bennett was given a seven-month jail sentence for smuggling stolen coins

US prosecutors have reduced a charge of murder in the case of a British man accused of killing his wife and sinking their catamaran off the coast of Cuba.

Lewis Bennett, 41, from Poole in Dorset, was rescued in May last year after sending an SOS message saying 41-year-old Isabella Hellmann was missing.

He now instead faces a charge of unlawful killing "without malice".

A "change of plea hearing" scheduled for Monday in a Miami court suggests a plea deal has been arranged.

Bennett was arrested on suspicion of murder in February after being given a jail sentence for smuggling stolen coins.

The FBI has accused Bennett of deliberately scuttling their 37ft (11m) vessel Surf Into Summer as the newlyweds sailed towards their US home in Florida after an expedition to St Maarten, Puerto Rico and Cuba.

Prosecutors had alleged he murdered her to end his "marital strife" and inherit her apartment where they lived in Delray Beach, and the contents of her bank account.

Bennett reported his wife missing in an SOS call as their catamaran was sinking

The British-Australian dual citizen was due to stand trial in December charged with second degree murder.

But on Friday prosecutors filed a fresh charge of unlawfully killing Ms Hellmann without malice in the commission of a lawful act, without due caution, which is gross negligence amounting to wanton and reckless disregard for human life.

Prosecutors have also alleged Ms Hellmann - the mother of Bennett's baby daughter - may have found out he had stolen gold and silver coins from his former employer in St Maarten, which could have made her an accomplice in the smuggling crime.

Bennett is currently serving a seven-month jail sentence after pleading guilty to transporting the coins worth $38,480 (£29,450).

The former estate agent's body has yet to be found but Bennett has requested that she should be presumed dead.