The armed guard assigned to Mike Lynch while he faced fraud charges has described how close he became to the "loving" tech entrepreneur and his family. Appointed by the court, Rolo Igno, said he was supposed to stay distant but that the professional relationship "quickly dissolved" when Lynch invited him to spend time with his family. Lynch and six others were killed when his luxury superyacht Bayesian sank off the coast of Sicily early on Monday after it was struck by a powerful storm wind called a downburst.
Lynch had been celebrating his acquittal from fraud charges relating to the £8.6bn sale of his software company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard in 2011. He was cleared in June after a trial at a federal court in San Francisco, California.
Igno said he had the "privilege" of spending "almost every waking moment" with Lynch while he was in custody in San Francisco. He said the job had been unlike any other and had been "life changing". "As an executive protection agent, the number one rule is simple, don't ever get close to the principal," he said.
"They aren't your friends, they're a client and the relationship is strictly professional. But with Mike, that didn't fly with him and for me that rule quickly dissolved." Igno described how.
.. Emily Dugan.