Cruise Ship Passenger Sentenced in Child Porn Case

Posted on November 7, 2009 by Jim Walker

The Virginia Pilot newspaper reports that a passenger was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for downloading child pornography. 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents arrested passenger Timothy David Webb, 32, after he disembarked Royal Caribbean's cruise ship Cruise passenger sex offenderGrandeur of the Seas at the Norfolk cruise ship terminal.  Webb is a convicted sex offender and has a conviction in 2000 for sodomy in the state of Virginia.

The customs agents pulled Webb from a line of passengers disembarking the cruise ship and  searched his laptop, which contained child pornography videos.

Caught By U.S. Federal Agents - Not By the Cruise Line  

I have written about the problem of crew members, as well as passengers, with child porno on cruise ships.  They are usually caught, not by the cruise line, but when custom agents view their laptops or iPhones and discover the pornographic images. 

In an articles entitled "Perverts, Child Predators and Cruise Ships" and "Another Crew Member Arrested for Child Pornography," I discussed crew members from Carnival and NCL cruise ships recently being arrested in Canada for pornography on their laptops and computers.

The web site "Cruise Ship Sex Offenders" lists some of the sex offenders who have worked or sailed on cruise ships. 

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Another Crew Member Arrested for Child Pornography

Posted on October 24, 2009 by Jim Walker

Canadian Border Patrol arrested another crew member after finding child pornography on his cell phone. NCL crew member Menandro Lim Lanzar, age 31, from the Philippines was arraigned in Halifax on a charge of importing child pornography.

Mr. Lanzar is employed as a quarter master on the NCL cruise ship Norwegian Jewel.

Canada's Chronicle Herald reported on the incident is a story "Cruise Ship Worker Caught with Child Porn, Police Say."

I first read the story in a CruiseBruise story entitled "Crew Member Arrested with Child Pornography - Norwegian Cruise Line's Jewel."

In an article last week entitled Perverts, Child Predators and Cruise Ships, I reported on a nearly identical case where a Carnival crew member from the cruise ship Triumph was arrested in Halifax for child pornography which was found on his cell phone and on his computer on the cruise ship.

Parents who take their children cruising need to realize that cruise ships are not immune from perverts and child predators.  The "background checks" performed by the cruise line's hiring agents are a joke.  Families that cruise need to be particularly careful with male cabin attendants around children.  Don't leave your kids alone in the cabin.

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Perverts, Child Predators and Cruise Ships

Posted on October 9, 2009 by Jim Walker

A Canadian newspaper reports that a crew member from Indonesia will soon find out whether he will serve additional jail time for possession of child pornography. Crew member Hendri Dharmawan, age 29, was working as a pastry chef on the Carnival Triumph when he was arrested September 1 in Halifax.  He has been in a Nova Scotia jail for the past five weeks after pleadings guilty to the child porn charges.

The crew member was caught with pornography on his iPhone as he returned to the Carnival cruise ship.  The border police then accompanied him back to his cabin where they discovered over two hours of child pornography on Dharmawan's laptop and external hard drive. The footage depicted girls as young as eight and boys as young as 10 being abused.

This type of story should serve as a wake up to parents who take their children on cruises.  Yes, there are sexual deviants and predators on cruise ships. We have had too many cases where unsuspecting parents leave their kids in the cabin when they go to the casino, or stay late at the disco. While the parents are gone, a cabin attendant enters the cabin with his pass key. Let's skip the details. Trust me, leaving a 12 year old boy or his 14 year old sister alone in a cabin is a bad idea.

Cruise lines suggest that the crew members are carefully screened before they are hired.  Nonsense.  First of all, the cruise line themselves do not perform background checks at all. They rely on the hiring agents around the world to perform all of the "screening."  But what type of background check can be performed in countries like Nicaragua, Trinidad, or India?  These places do not have computerized databases for drivers licenses or social security numbers much less a database for criminals or a tracking system for sexual predators.  Many of the hiring agencies who are suppose to be conducting background checks are paid commissions when they place employees on cruise ships.  There is a disincentive to keep the bad apples off of the cruise ships.  

If a crew member molests your child on the cruise ship, don't expect the cruise line to believe your child.  Cruise lines have a notorious and well earned reputation of covering up crimes.  Their priority too often is defending the crew members and their own marketing image. 

There is also the danger of other passengers abusing your children.  A cruise ship presents the same dangers as your home town. A web site called Cruise Ship Sex Offenders lists some of the sex perverts who have worked or sailed on cruise ships.      

 

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