Years of lawsuits accuse cruise line crew of sexual assault: report
A new BuzzFeed investigative report catalogs the problem of sexual assault from crew members of cruise lines from Disney, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and others.
Cruise lines had several issues impacting passenger safety, including understaffed security teams, a lack of surveillance coverage, and in one case, a lost rape kit, according to BuzzFeed.
The report includes the retelling of several instances of sexual assault, with crew members as the perpetrators. A 21-year-old woman said a crew member locked her in a closet, raped and ejaculated on her. Another victim, now 21, said she was 11 years old and traveling with her grandmother at the time of her assault. She claims to have contracted HIV from her attacker, who she identified as a cruise ship employee. There have been about 454 reported allegations of sex crimes on cruise ships. Many included ship employees. At least 30 of these court settlements involved minors, according to the report.
Reporters contacted maritime attorneys to dig deeper for more context on the lack of safety on the ships. In 1999, Royal Caribbean searched for a solution to sexual assaults on their ships. Consultants suggested several ways to improve passenger safety, according to the report. James Walker, a Miami-based attorney, told Buzzfeed that he took several depositions of Royal Caribbean employees and discovered none of the changes were implemented. The company opted for a “zero tolerance” marketing plan instead, Walker told the reporters.
A significant issue contributing to the problem is the lack of independent law enforcement agencies to investigate the crimes promptly, maritime attorney Michael Winkman told BuzzFeed. In the report, he stated, “victims often must rely on onboard security to maintain the crime scene and preserve evidence.” Furthermore, the staff is poorly trained in collecting evidence or testimony, making it difficult for victims to find closure via criminal or civil trials. It’s also hard for the FBI to get involved in the process because they don’t have immediate access to the ships or the crime scene when the boat is at sea, according to Buzzfeed.
The report said security officials working for the cruise lines requested more resources and advocated hiring more officers, but were rebuffed due to “budget constraints.” During one deposition regarding a passenger accusing two male passengers of raping her aboard the Carnival Sensation in September 2014, Carnival Cruise Line’s then-security director Michael Panariello said requests for more help started as early as 2007. The report said his boss, Dominick Froio Jr., the then-vice president of security, told attorneys that those requests “go on deaf ears” because upper management has “other priorities.”
On the congressional front, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) has spent the last decade working toward better cruise ship safety. Blumenthal noted cruise companies don’t have an incentive to fix the problem and choose to “minimize it and even sweep it under the rug without other passengers becoming alarmed or even aware of it,” according to the report.
Read the full report on BuzzFeed.com.
