A Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) ship worker has been arrested on the port of Los Angeles, California and fees with 13 counts of possession of kid sexual abuse materials, in line with a launch from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE).
Theodore Burbank Pappas, Jr., age 47, was arrested by the Los Angeles Port Police and is presently being held on the Los Angeles Police Division Detention Facility with no bond. He might be extradited to Florida and prosecuted by the Workplace of the State Legal professional, Fourth Judicial Circuit.
A assessment of the reserving data present that Pappas was arrested at 8:30 a.m. on April 4, 2025, after which booked on the Los Angeles County Jail on the afternoon of the identical day. On April 4th, 2025, the Norwegian Bliss was the one NCL cruise ship to reach in Los Angeles, for a 5-night Mexican Riviera cruise.
FDLE says they started investigating Pappas in 2024 when brokers obtained a cyber-tip from the Nationwide Middle for Lacking & Exploited Youngsters which had flagged a web based account, registered to Pappas, importing information with photographs of kids being sexually abused, in line with FDLE.
Along with the kid sexual abuse materials fees, Pappas can be charged with one rely every of transmission of kid sexual abuse materials and illegal use of a two-way communication machine (i.e., a mobile phone), that are all felonies.
FDLE obtained an arrest warrant and the Los Angeles Port Police arrested Pappas on April 4th. He’s presently being held on the Los Angeles Police Division Detention Facility with out bond, awaiting extradition to Florida.
Final 12 months, there have been at the very least 17 arrests of crew members for possession of kid pornography / sexual abuse supplies involving quite a lot of cruise strains. Crew members from six corporations have been arrested on youngster pornography fees: Carnival – 7; Royal Caribbean – 4; Disney – 3; Superstar – 1; Holland America Line – 1: and World Explorer -1.
Up to now, now we have referred to those sort of circumstances as involving “youngster pornography” versus “youngster sexual abuse supplies.” Whereas the time period youngster pornography remains to be extensively utilized by the general public, it’s extra correct to name it what it’s: proof of kid sexual abuse. That’s why many organizations stopped utilizing the time period youngster pornography and switched to referring to it as CSAM — youngster sexual abuse supplies. We’ll now refer to those circumstances as involving “youngster sexual abuse supplies.” As one sexual assault victim organization defined:
“Whereas a number of the pornography on-line depicts adults who’ve consented to be filmed, that’s by no means the case when the photographs depict youngsters. Simply as youngsters can’t legally consent to intercourse, they’ll’t consent to having photographs of their abuse recorded and distributed. Each express picture or video of a child is definitely proof that the kid has been a sufferer of sexual abuse.”
April 9, 2025 Replace:
We have now realized that Pappas labored because the “Head of Broadcast” (broadcast technician) aboard NCL’s Norwegian Bliss cruise ship. A colleague of his on the ship wrote: “That is really horrifying — this man was onboard with unfettered entry to youngsters and Wi-Fi (in his place as head of broadcast he had extra entry to WiFi than common crew) for your complete time he was beneath investigation.”
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Picture credit score: Norwegian Bliss – Sea Cow CC BY-SA 4.0, commons / wikimedia; Little one Sexual Abuse Supplies Picture – Addressing Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM): A Comprehensive Perspective.
