A British sailor rescued alone from his sinking boat after issuing an SOS call reporting his wife missing at sea, faces jail for admitting her manslaughter .
Lewis Bennett had been accused of murdering Isabella Hellmann and intentionally scuttling the vessel off the coast of Cuba.
the 42-year-old, from Dorset, pleaded guilty to the lesser charge and is due to be sentenced at a court in Miami today.
The newlyweds, who had recently welcomed a baby daughter, had been sailing from Cuba to Delray Beach, Florida, when Bennett sent a distress signal on May 15 2017.
The experienced sailor, who has a dual British-Australian citizenship, claimed he awoke to find his wife missing from the 34ft vessel, Surf Into Summer.
But he failed to raise the alarm for 45 minutes after he fled the catamaran in a life raft carrying Cuban trinkets, a tea set and a jar of peanut butter.
He was later plucked from the sea but, despite an extensive search, the 41-year-old Isabella's body was never found. She was declared dead by a judge earlier this month.
Prosecutors had alleged Bennett murdered his wife and deliberately sunk the catamaran to end his "marital strife" and inherit her Delray Beach home and wealth.
But they reduced the charge to one of unlawful killing without malice, and Bennett pleaded guilty.
In a bizarre twist, Bennett was found to be smuggling rare coins worth nearly £30,000 during his rescue which prosecutors cited as another potential reason he may have wanted Isabella dead.
He had reported the gold and silver collectables stolen from a former employer in St Maarten a year earlier.
Bennett is currently serving a seven-month jail stretch after admitting transporting the loot.
The couple's two-year-old daughter now lives in Edinburgh and is cared for by Bennett's parents and sister.
