A twenty-one 12 months previous school scholar was arrested final week after a grand jury indicted him on costs of assaulting a girl onboard the Carnival Legend earlier this 12 months. The Division of Justice revealed a press launch indicating that Jalen Kelly was indicted final week of (1) assault, (2) sexual abuse, and (3) aggravated sexual abuse of a younger girl on the Carnival cruise ship.
The case was filed in federal court docket in Baltimore, Mayland. The defendant is from the state of Maryland the place the cruise originated. The DOJ press release signifies that Mr, Kelly allegedly engaged in a “sexual act by drive” and assaulted “Sufferer 1” with out consent on board the Carnival Legend.
The press launch credit the cooperation of the Wingate College Campus Security and Wingate Police Division for his or her help. Mr. Kelley seems to be a scholar at Wingate College.
The indictment additionally contains “baby exploitation forfeiture” allegations pursuant to 18 U.S. C. Part 2251 et seq. the place the U.S. authorities seeks the restoration of any “movie or videotape” or different “visible depictions” of the alleged sexual abuse.
The indictment and court docket data include no particulars of the alleged crime however fairly recommend that the sufferer could also be a minor given the kid exploitation forfeiture allegations.
The cruise business refuses to reveal, typically, when the sufferer of a sexual assault on a cruise ship is a minor. Nevertheless, testimony of the FBI earlier than Congress signifies that roughly one-third of intercourse crimes on cruises are dedicated towards kids,
Cruise traces are required by regulation, the Cruise Vessel Safety & Security Act of 2010 (CVSSA), to report sure crimes to the Division of Transportation (DOT) which is required to publish the crimes on a public database on a web portal maintained by the federal company. The crime knowledge should be posted on a quarterly foundation.
Sadly, the DOT has not posted any cruise ship crime knowledge for this 12 months (2023). The final crimes reported have been in 2022.
The DOT knowledge 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.
Given the DOT’s failure to publish the crime knowledge, it’s at present unknown whether or not sexual crimes throughout cruises are staying the identical or are rising.
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Picture credit score: Jalen Kelley – Gaston County Jail via Recently Booked; Carnival Legend – Yankeesman312 – CC BY-SA 4.0 wikipedia / inventive commons.
