Yesterday U.S. District Decide Julie R. Rubin sentenced Jalen Thomas Kelley, 22, of Abingdon, Maryland, to twenty years in federal jail, adopted by 5 years of supervised launch, for raping a minor who was crusing together with her household on a Carnival cruise ship out of Baltimore, Maryland. This information comes from a press release by the U.S. Justice Division. Kelly was beforehand convicted, following a two-week trial, on December 12, 2024, of “aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse, and assault.”
In response to the court docket file and proof introduced at trial, between January 1 and January 2, 2023, Kelley, then age 21, forcibly raped and assaulted the teenage lady aboard the Carnival Legend.
We first reported on the sexual assault in September of 2023 when Kelly was arrested. After we first reported on this case, we talked about that “the cruise business refuses to reveal, usually, when the sufferer of a sexual assault on a cruise ship is a minor. Nonetheless, testimony of the FBI earlier than Congress signifies that roughly one-third of intercourse crimes on cruises are dedicated towards kids.”
In response to the court docket file, Kelley was a junior at Wingate College vacationing on the Carnival Legend which sailed out of Baltimore, when he met the 17-year-old sufferer on the Carnival cruise ship after a New Yr’s Eve occasion on the early morning of Jan. 1, 2023.
In response to the Miami Herald and New York Post, the minor grew to become intoxicated on the occasion on the cruise ship. “Kelley noticed that (she) was intoxicated (by his personal admission), realized she was weak, and supplied to take her to the lavatory. When she stepped outdoors the lavatory (in his cabin), Kelley pushed her on the mattress, ‘face first,’ and raped her. After raping (her), Kelley requested, ‘you good?’”
Not one of the information accounts clarify how the minor had entry to the occasion the place alcohol was served on the cruise ship. Most sexual assaults which happen throughout cruises on Carnival ships contain an intoxicated sufferer. There’s a direct correlation between extreme alcohol bought on cruise ships and shipboard crime, usually, and sexual crimes towards girls, specifically.
After the cruise returned to Baltimore, the sufferer returned together with her household dwelling to Virginia, the place she reported the rape to her dad and mom and police. A medical examination at a hospital revealed bruises on her arm and shins, in addition to “vaginal abrasions, tearing and bruising.”
Moreover, through the trial, prosecutors introduced testimony from six different people who claimed that Kelley had sexually assaulted them on separate events. In 2019, Kelley was convicted as a minor in a sexual assault case, in keeping with the Miami Herald. Whereas the FBI was investigating him following the rape on the Carnival Legend, he allegedly raped a classmate at Wingate College in North Carolina the place he performed performed varsity soccer, prosecutors stated. The Every day Mail reported Carnival Cruise Rapist Unmasked As College Football Star With Habit of Sexually Assaulting Girls.
In 2010, the Worldwide Cruise Victims (ICV) group was profitable in having Congress go the Cruise Vessel Safety and Security Act into legislation. The legislation required cruise traces to report sure crimes which happen with regularity, which embrace sexual and bodily assaults on cruise ships.
The information required by the Cruise Vessel Safety and Security Act of 2010 present that Carnival Cruise Line had thirty-nine (39) sexual assaults and rapes on its cruise ship for 2024. A breakdown by quarter is as follows:
- Quarter 1 (January 1 – March thirty first): 9
- Quarter 2 (April 1 – June thirtieth): 9
- Quarter 3 (July 1st – September 30st): 8
- Quarter 4 (October 1st – December thirty first) 13
We most lately wrote about Carnival Cruise Line crime right here: Recent Cruise Crime Data Shows Carnival Cruise Line Remains the Most Dangerous Cruise Line at Sea. For the primary quarter of this 12 months (2025), Carnival Cruise Line continued to guide all cruise traces with 9 sexual assaults and rapes on Carnival ships.
The aim of necessary public reporting of sexual assaults, rapes, and bodily assaults with severe bodily accidents on cruise ships is to “educate and warn the touring public of risks on cruise ships.” By all accounts, Carnival stays essentially the most harmful place to take your loved ones on a trip cruise. In past articles, we’ve reported that the typical per capita sexual assault and rape price on Carnival cruise ships is increased than 20 to 25 states in the USA. Learn: Final DOT Cruise Crime Data For 2023: Carnival Cruise Line’s Per Capita Sexual Assault / Rape Rate Is Higher Than 27 States.
This isn’t the primary sexual assault on the Carnival Legend. One of many most notorious sexual assault cases on this ship occurred in 2018 when an 18 year-old with particular wants (and with the psychological capability of a 13-year-old) was sexually assaulted by man throughout a cruise to the Bahamas. The incident occurred in a scorching tub aboard the Carnival cruise ship. The sufferer was travelling on a birthday cruise/lady’s journey together with her grandmother. The rapist “watched her then focused her within the scorching tub.”
Carnival has persistently led the cruise business with essentially the most shipboard rapes and violent bodily assaults resulting in severe bodily accidents. Going again to 2017, 35 passengers and crew members reported being victims of sexual assaults on Carnival Cruise Line ships, for an a median of three a month.
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Picture credit score: Carnival Legend – Carnival Cruise Line website; Jalen Kelley – Gaston County Jail via Recently Booked; Carnival funnel – Cruzely; Jalen Kelley soccer uniform – @NicoleMastrogiannis through Daily Mail.
