Ship employee arrested in cruise passenger assault

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The most common crimes committed on board cruise ships are sexual assaults against passengers, but they seldom find their way to court.

In a recent case involving a passenger assault on board the Coral Princess, however, a female passenger told staff on the cruise ship that she had been assaulted by a member of the crew. The cruise, which had departed Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was nearing the end of its 14-day sailing through the Panama Canal.

A couple of days later, the cruise line identified the employee as Jorge Manuel Teixeira, a Portuguese national. He was subsequently arrested and is expected to appear in federal court this week.

Princess Cruises, which is a subsidiary of Carnival Cruise Lines, wouldn’t provide details about the passenger’s claim, but issued a statement following her allegation of assault, saying: “We also put into place our crime response protocol including sealing off the area of the alleged assault, restricting the crew member to his quarters with a security posting and providing medical and other assistance to the passenger.”

After the cruise ship docked in San Pedro, California, FBI agents boarded the vessel and questioned the suspect as well as a number of passengers.

Teixeira was then charged with sexual assault.

Thanks to www.myfoxphilly.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

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