Costa Concordia girl still haunts

The tear-stained face of the five-year-old girl haunted Rob Elcombe's dreams for months.

As panicked passengers waited to get on lifeboats to escape the sinking Costa Concordia, the girl's distraught father debated returning to their cabin for medication.

Mr Elcombe and his wife Tracey Gunn were among those who pleaded with Italian William Arlotti to stay on deck with his daughter Dayana.

But those pleas were ignored and the pair disappeared into the crowds clutching hands. Days later, the WA couple learnt the pair had drowned.

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"I'd see her in my sleep and as soon as I'd see her I'd wake up and I'd be too scared to go back to sleep," Mr Elcombe said.

According to other passengers, the father and daughter fell into a flooded part of the cruise ship when it rolled as they tried to cross a deck to reach life rafts.

It is three years since 32 people died that January evening in 2012 when the luxury liner crashed into rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio.

Mr Elcombe and Ms Gunn are positive, strong people but do not think they will ever really get over the harrowing incident.

Capt. Francesco Schettino allegedly misjudged a "salute" manoeuvre, sailing too close to the coast and smashing into rocks, tearing a massive hole in the hull of the 115,000-tonne liner. The disgraced captain delayed ordering the evacuation of the crippled vessel and then scrambled ashore in one of the first lifeboats while hundreds of passengers and crew were still aboard.

He is on trial in Italy and faces 20 years jail if convicted of multiple manslaughter charges, abandoning ship and causing a maritime disaster.

"We believe he should go to jail but we don't think he's solely to blame," the couple said.

"We think he has been made the scapegoat and it's disappointing that the boss of the ship owner's crisis unit and four crew members successfully sought plea bargains and got suspended jail terms."

More than 4000 guests and crew were aboard when disaster struck just three hours after the 290m ship left port.

The Mediterranean cruise was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime for the couple but it became a desperate fight for survival.

Mr Elcombe and Ms Gunn said they stayed calm during more than two hours of chaos waiting for spaces in a lifeboat but the trauma set in about six months later and they were both diagnosed with post-traumatic stress.

"I got to the stage with a rope around the tree and a rope around my neck," Mr Elcombe said. "I felt guilty because I couldn't help a five-year-old girl get off the boat and she died.

"It was out of my control but it's survivor guilt."

He became sleep deprived when he tried to avoid the dreams and that led to depression and anxiety.

The couple said the ship's owner Costa Cruises, a subsidiary of one of the world's biggest cruise operators Carnival Corp, failed to support the passengers.

They refused the $14,000 the company offered each person as compensation for baggage loss and psychological trauma and took legal action, fearing they would not survive without intensive counselling.

Confidentiality agreements prevent them revealing the payouts each received on settlement but they said it covered the treatment they needed.

But they can still get emotional talking about that night and Ms Gunn says she can feel trapped in queues, on planes and in cinemas.