South Korean judges handed down a 36 year jail sentence a short while ago to the captain of the Sewol ferry that sank in April with the loss of more than 300 lives.

However, the judges acquitted him of murder which could have had him handed down capital punishment.

The ruling followed five months of dramatic, often painful testimony in the trial of Captain Lee Jun Seok and 14 other crew members of the Sewol. The ferry was carrying hundreds of children on a school trip when it capsized off the southern coast of the country.

Of the 304 confirmed dead or still listed as missing, 250 were school children.

The last body to be recovered was on Oct 28, more than 100 days after the previous one was pulled from the vessel. However, nine bodies are still unaccounted for.