The Lynch family have said they are “devastated” and “in shock” but are being “comforted and supported by family and friends” after the Bayesian superyacht tragedy.
British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, 59, was confirmed dead by local authorities on Thursday after the yacht he was holidaying on sunk in the early hours of Monday.
A spokesperson for the family said in a statement on Friday: “The Lynch family is devastated, in shock and is being comforted and supported by family and friends.
“Their thoughts are with everyone affected by the tragedy. They would like to sincerely thank the Italian coastguard, emergency services and all those who helped in the rescue. Their one request now is that their privacy be respected at this time of unspeakable grief.”
Tributes have since poured in for both members of the family.
‘Lost one of our brightest stars’
Miss Lynch “lit up the classroom with her energy, passion for learning and sheer intelligence”, Jon Mitropoulos-Monk, head of English at Latymer Upper School in west London, said.
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“I’ve never taught someone who combined sky-high intellectual ability with warmth and enthusiasm in the way Hannah did,” he said on Friday.
He added that when she was awarded her place to study at Oxford she sought out every member of staff to “thank them individually and give them a hug”.
Family friend Patrick Jacob said he has “never met anybody like Hannah”, describing her as “charming and ferociously intelligent with an insatiable thirst for life and knowledge”.
“We have lost one of our brightest stars whose future held so much promise. Her loss is unbearable,” he added.
Miss Lynch’s school friend Katya Lacie said she had a “beautiful soul”. “Being with Hannah made me feel whole and happy. She is the most special friend anyone could ask for and I will always love Hannah,” she said.
Andrew Kanter, a close friend and former colleague of her father, described Mr Lynch as “the most brilliant mind and caring person I have ever known”.
“There is simply no other UK technology entrepreneur of our generation who has had such an impact on so many people,” he said.
Image: Hannah Lynch
Sushovan Hussain, a school friend and former colleague of Mr Lynch, also knew Morgan Stanley chairman Jonathan Bloom, his wife Judy, and Mr Lynch’s lawyer Chris Morvillo, who also died when the yacht sunk.
He said Mr Lynch’s death “leaves an unfillable hole in my life”, adding it is “tragic beyond words”.
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Mike Lynch’s neighbour: ‘Words fail me’
‘Fantastic neighbour’
Ruth Leigh lived next door to the couple in Suffolk for 15 years.
On Thursday, she described them as “fantastic neighbours” and said the tech tycoon “never played on his position” and was “very friendly and down-to-earth” despite his fortune.
“Even though they were wealthy and influential people there was never any airs and graces,” Ms Leigh told Sky News.
“He always went to the trouble of remembering your name, of asking after your partner or your children. From the very start they were fantastic neighbours – very friendly and down-to-earth.
“He’d come from a very ordinary background and through his own brains and intellect, he’d made a really great company and come up with some incredible ground-breaking tech. He was always very moral. He gave to charity very generously and never played on his position.”
She described his death so soon after the end of his legal troubles as “the saddest thing I’ve ever heard”.
“The whole point about this trip to Italy was taking his friends and family to say thank you. That’s what makes it even more tragic,” she added.
“Losing somebody so kind, compassionate, and full of integrity must leave a hole that cannot be filled.”
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Mr Lynch was extradited to the US and spent a year under house arrest in San Francisco before he was cleared of 15 charges of fraud earlier this summer by a jury.
Prosecutors claimed he deliberately overstated the value of Autonomy, the company he founded in 1996, when he sold it to Hewlett Packard in 2011. He always denied wrongdoing.
‘Brain the size of a planet’
His former colleague told Sky News on Thursday he had a “brain the size of a planet” and was a “lovely man”.
David Tabizel co-founded Autonomy with Mr Lynch and the pair remained good friends. He described him as a “remarkable individual” and the “brightest man I’ve met in my life”.
“He had a remarkable set of personality traits that we rarely see in Britain,” he said.
“Before him there was no British tech scene. He showed us we can be world-class.”
Mr Tabizel told of Mr Lynch’s “inner child”, that he “loved video games”, had a life-size train set in his garden, and how they animated a cartoon dog for their office, for which they both recorded the “barking noises”.
Commenting on his legal struggles, Mr Tabizel said he “never heard him lie or exaggerate” and he was “interested in the truth… in cutting through the noise”.
“For him to be accused of manipulating his profits. It was an extraordinary thing. It just wasn’t Mike. I loved that man and he should be celebrated as a hero.”
David Yelland, Mr Lynch’s former PR adviser and former editor of The Sun newspaper, paid tribute to him in a post on X.
He said: “All those that knew and loved Mike are thinking of Angela and their surviving daughter Esme as they struggle to come to terms with such unimaginable loss.
“We have lost a man who was failed in life by his country and his peers when he needed them most – as he looked for help in the unjust US demand that he be extradited – and he has then suffered the most unfair and brutal of fates.”
Mr Yelland said he had spoken to Mr Lynch just before he set sail on the yacht.
He also described him as a “dreamer of dreams not just for himself but for all those that knew him, worked with him or invested with him”.
The entrepreneur had “exciting plans to contribute much more to the country he loved,” he added.
Image: Bayesian superyacht. Pic: Danny Wheelz
Lord Browne, former chief executive of BP and now chairman of BeyondNetZero, said Mr Lynch was “the person who catalysed a breed of deep tech entrepreneurs in the UK”.
“His ideas and his personal vision were a powerful contribution to science and technology in both Britain and globally. We have lost a human being of great ability,” he wrote.
Image: Pictured in 2010. Pic: Shutterstock
‘Privileged to have known him’
Sky’s Ian King said he “feels very privileged to have known and spoken with Mike Lynch over many years”.
He described him as a “visionary and original thinker with a passion for building businesses”. “There are sadly too few like him in the UK,” he added.
The Royal Academy of Engineering, where Mr Lynch was a former council member, donor, and mentor, said it is “deeply saddened to learn of the death of Mike Lynch”.
Sending condolences to his family, they added: “Mike became a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2008 and we have fond memories of the active role he played in the past as a mentor, donor, and former council member. He was also one of the inaugural members on the enterprise committee.”
A spokesperson for technology industry group TechUK said: “Mike Lynch was a hugely significant and pioneering figure in the UK technology sector.
“Our hearts go out to all of the families and friends who have been impacted by these tragic events,” they said.
Image: Jonathan Bloomer of Morgan Stanley. Pic: Hiscox/ Linkedin
Image: US lawyer Chris Morvillo. Pic: Clifford Chance
Mr Lynch’s Autonomy software was based on Bayesian statistical inference – where his family’s ill-fated yacht got its name.
The software’s global success earned him a reputation as the “British Bill Gates” and enabled companies to trawl through huge swathes of data more efficiently.
His Cambridge thesis is thought to be one of the most-read pieces of research in the institution’s library.
There was huge outcry from politicians and business leaders when Home Secretary Priti Patel approved a judge’s extradition order for him to be sent to the US for trial in 2023.
The first known victim of serial paedophile Richard Burrows has told Sky News he regrets not reporting his assault at the time to save others from “falling into the same trap”.
Burrows, 81, will learn his sentence at Chester Crown Court today after being convicted last month of dozens of sexual offences against young boys.
The judge told him it is “inevitable” he might never be released.
The former scout master had spent 27 years on the run, living in what he called “paradise” in Thailand, after stealing the identity of a friend and fleeing the UK when he was due in court in 1997.
Image: A police photo of Burrows from the 1990s. Pic: Cheshire Police
He was arrested when he arrived at Heathrow in March last year.
The trial heard that Burrows had obtained positions of authority and systematically abused boys from the 1960s to the mid-1990s.
He had worked as a housemaster at a school for troubled boys and befriended other youngsters through amateur radio clubs.
One of those was his first victim, aged 14 at the time in the late 1960s, and now 71.
He told Sky News: “It’s been an awfully long time and after 57 years I’ve got to see the results at the end of it.
“It does actually feel like a weight’s been lifted. You hear that expression all through life, but it’s the first time ever really felt it.”
He described Burrows as a “devious, nasty creature”.
The man, who cannot be identified as he is the victim of a sexual offence, attended Burrows’s trial and delivered a victim impact statement at his sentencing.
He said he wanted to do this because of the regret he carries to this day.
“I wish I’d said something when it happened because I feel that, in retrospect, if I would have said something, then maybe it would have stopped other people from falling into the same trap that I did,” he added.
“But at that time, at that age, I thought I probably wouldn’t have been believed, and I felt too ashamed and embarrassed and even guilty to even mention it to anybody else. So, I didn’t, and I regret not doing that.”
Image: Photos of Burrows in Thailand. Pic: Cheshire Police
The man contacted police after seeing an appeal for help in finding the fugitive Burrows on the BBC’s Crimewatch programme in 2011. It would be another decade before he was arrested.
He said: “I really begrudge him those 27 years. It’s 27 years and he’s just left a trail of wreckage behind him while he’s enjoying himself.
“It’s a shame he’s not got another 27 years to look forward to in jail.”
Although he was the earliest victim on the indictment at Burrows’s trial, like detectives from Cheshire Police, he believes there could be other victims who have not come forward.
He said: “Personally, I don’t think I was the first victim. I think that he was probably fairly well practiced in the art of what he was doing prior to my meeting him.”
Image: Burrows being met by police at Heathrow. Pic: Cheshire Police
Burrows was initially charged in May 1997 but failed to attend a hearing later that year.
He remained on the wanted list until police using facial recognition software matched him to a man using the name Peter Smith. He had stolen the identity of a terminally ill friend to obtain a passport.
After his conviction in March, judge Steven Everett told Burrows he had caused “untold distress and trauma to the victims and their families”.
The UK has joined US forces in attacking a Houthi target in Yemen for the first time since Donald Trump was re-elected.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed the strikes took place on Tuesday as part of the government’s response to Houthi attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
The ministry said careful intelligence analysis identified a cluster of buildings used by the Houthis to manufacture the sort of drones used to attack ships, located 15 miles south of the capital Sanaa.
RAF Typhoon FGR4s conducted strikes on several buildings using Paveway IV precision-guided bombs.
The planes had air refuelling support from Voyager tankers.
The ministry said the strike was conducted after dark to reduce the likelihood of civilians being in the area.
All the aircraft returned safely.
Image: John Healey. Pic: Reuters
Defence Secretary John Healey said: “This government will always act in the interests of our national and economic security.
“Royal Air Force Typhoons have successfully conducted strikes against a Houthi military target in Yemen and all UK aircraft and personnel have returned safely to base.
“We conducted these strikes, supported by the US, to degrade Houthi capabilities and prevent further attacks against UK and international shipping.”
Houthis a ‘persistent threat’ to ‘freedom of navigation’
Mr Healey said Houthi activities in the Red Sea are a “persistent threat” to “freedom of navigation”.
“A 55% drop in shipping through the Red Sea has already cost billions, fuelling regional instability and risking economic security for families in the UK,” he said.
“The government is steadfast in our commitment to reinforcing global stability and protecting British working people. I am proud of the dedication and professionalism shown by the service men and women involved in this operation.”
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The group began launching attacks on shipping routes in November 2023 saying they were in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.
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Footage showing people being pulled from rubble has been released by Houthi rebels in Yemen