The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania introduced final week that Salem Christopher Diop, age 22, of Kingston, Pennsylvania, was indicted by a federal grand jury on a sexual assault cost.
The indictment and press launch state that on July 8, 2023, Diop was on a cruise when he engaged in sexual assault with a sufferer “incapable of appraising the character of the conduct.” The court docket submitting and press launch don’t check with the title of the cruise line or cruise ship the place the sexual assault passed off.
Sexually assaulting a sufferer who’s “incapable of appraising the character of the conduct” sometimes happens when the sufferer is impaired by a drug, intoxicant, or different comparable substance.
The court docket file doesn’t comprise any particulars of the circumstances resulting in the alleged sexual assault. The allegations represent a felony.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Assistant U.S. Lawyer Jenny P. Roberts is prosecuting the case.
The utmost penalty underneath federal legislation for this offense is life imprisonment, a time period of supervised launch following imprisonment, and a superb.
Cruise traces are required by legislation, the Cruise Vessel Safety & Security Act of 2010 (CVSSA), to report sure crimes to the Division of Transportation (DOT) which is suppose to publish the crimes on a public database on a web portal maintained by the federal company. The crime information should be posted on a quarterly foundation.
Sadly, the DOT has not posted any cruise ship crime information for this 12 months. The final crimes reported had been in 2022.
The DOT information for 2022 signifies that there have been a complete of 87 sexual assaults on cruise ships for that 12 months. Of this quantity, there have been 33 sexual assaults reported on cruise ships operated by Carnival Cruise Line, 22 on Royal Caribbean ships, and seven on NCL ships.
It’s at the moment unknown whether or not sexual crimes throughout cruises are staying the identical or are growing given the DOT’s failure to publish the crime information.
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