Navy officers deny a submarine sank the fishing boat 17 years ago

Three submarines were in the area when the trawler went down off the Cornish coast, an inquest was told

Two of the UK's most senior Royal Navy officers have strongly rejected the suggestion that a submarine could have sunk a fishing boat that went down off the Cornish coast 17 years ago with the loss of five lives.

They told an inquest that three submarines - from the UK, the Netherlands and Germany - were in the area to take part in a military exercise but were not close to the trawler when it sunk and claimed it was unthinkable" that records of the military vessels' movements had been falsified in a cover-up.