I wrapped my legs onto the boat and everybody was holding on to each other

John Lilley

"It was morning when Luke died. It was light," said Mr Lilley.

"I first realised that Luke was ill when he stopped breathing, that was just after 6am.

"I gave him resuscitation, and he started breathing again.

"Some time after that, about 6.45, he stopped breathing, and I tried to resuscitate him, but he did not respond."

Mr Lilley was hailed as a hero at the time of the accident, which claimed the lives of headmaster Richard Harris, 50, and his sons Timothy, 13, and Luke.

Mr Lilley, his children and Catherine Harris, of Renhold, in Bedfordshire, survived the disaster.

John Lilley: Was hailed as a hero

He is now on trial facing multiple manslaughter charges. It is alleged that he ignored weather warnings and failed to ensure his passengers were wearing lifejackets.

Eight others face prosecution, including six Carabinieri police officers accused of failing to initiate a rescue in time.

Mr Lilley was accompanied by the British consul, his wife Jane and children Andrew, 18, and Alison, 16, when he arrived at court on Wednesday.

He recalled how he had taken the motorboat out on Lake Garda with his two children and four members of the Harris family, whom they had met on the 1998 holiday.

He said the party travelled for 45 minutes to within a kilometre of the opposite shore, where they stopped for a swim.

Small waves

However, they decided to head back after noticing a gust of wind and observing weather conditions to the north.

"I started the boat, and at the time, though it was windy, the waves were just small," he said.

"After a very short time, two or three minutes, the wind had got very strong."

The boat was filled with water by two large waves which came close together, and the vessel then became unstable and capsized.

Richard Harris: Drowned along with his sons

Asked if he had tried to find lifejackets when this happened, he said: "It happened so quickly and I thought there weren't any, that I could see."

After the boat capsized Mr Lilley said the party all tried to hold on to each other.

"I wrapped my legs onto the boat and everybody was holding on to each other," he said.

"The weather was really bad, this was at five o'clock, we were due back at six o'clock, and I told the others that we would maybe have to hold on for two hours.

"I reasoned that we would be missed and they would find us. We stayed in this position for two hours. At 7 o'clock a very large wave crashed right on to the boat and I lost my grip.

Rescuers arrived

"When we managed to surface, we had been washed apart and regrouped. Mr Harris was nowhere to be seen. I looked and saw him floating on his back, maybe 50m away."

Mr Lilley said Timothy died just after midnight, while Luke died an hour before rescuers arrived the next morning.

"Because he was the smallest, he was very cold, and at times he would try to get away from me," he said.

"The last hours were very desperate, his breathing was shallow and he became very still, but he was still breathing.

"I had him close to my chest, and realised he had stopped breathing."

Verdicts in the case are expected later this year.