Woman claims she was ‘brutally’ raped on Miami-based luxury cruise line
A woman is suing SeaDream Yachts Club after she was allegedly raped on a June 2015 sailing and her friend on the Miami-based cruise line. The woman declined to give her name.
What happened?
The North Carolina-based passenger alleged the bartender “brutally” raped her vaginally, anally and orally that night. She claims that SeaDream was negligent.
In a suit filed Thursday in Miami district court, the woman, who has chosen not to give her name, alleges The night of the alleged rape, June 24, 2015, the woman said in an interview, she had taken her usual sleeping tablet, a medication she had taken for four years at that point, along with a seasickness tablet handed to her by a concierge.
That’s when she headed over to the piano bar, where the bartender worked. Accompanying her was a lifelong friend who was on the voyage with her.
Drugged:
The bartender, whom she and her friend knew well from previous sailings on the line, gave her water to take the pill, a ginger drink to soothe nausea and a glass of wine, she said.
That’s where her memory starts to get fuzzy, she said, likely because of the combination of pills.
In and out of consciousness, she remembers two things, she said: Her friend leaving her with the bartender, who promised to get her back to the room safely, and the bartender raping her behind the bar.
The bartender, she alleges, closed the blinds surrounding the bar and “forcibly” raped her.
“He was raping me in all areas possible and I was crying and I was asking him, ‘Why are you doing this to me? You are hurting me,’” she said in a phone interview arranged by her attorney.
The woman was eventually dropped her off in her room, where she said she stayed for almost the remaining time of the trip as she tried to cope with what had happened, she claims.
Captain was negligent:
As the ship neared its destination in Venice, Italy, she decided to call the ship’s doctor, who was unable to perform a full examination because there was no rape kit on board the SeaDream I, she said. The captain, she alleges, didn’t come see her when she called for him.
Instead, he asked her friend as they were disembarking the ship, “Does your friend intend to sue SeaDream?” she recalled in the phone interview. “At that point, it wasn’t even a consideration,” she said.
SeaDream declined to comment on this story, citing pending litigation.
In the suit, the plaintiff is asking for $25 million in damages from the cruise line, which she alleges was negligent in providing a reasonably safe environment for its passengers.
Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act:
In 2010, Congress passed the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act in response to a high number of sexual assault cases. Per the act, “sexual assault and physical assaults on cruise vessels were the leading crimes investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with regard to cruise vessel incidents” from 2005 to 2010. Under the law, cruise lines are now required to self-report criminal activity.
Increase in sexual assault onboard cruise ships:
Sexual assault is the No. 1 crime reported by the major cruise lines. Of 114 reported crimes between April 2015 and December 2016 from major lines, excluding SeaDream, more than 60 percent were sexual assault cases involving either passengers or crew members.
Still, based on the volume of cases he sees, Winkleman said, “it’s our opinion that [sexual assaults] are dramatically underreported.”
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Source: Bradenton
