A 71-year-old man has been criminally charged after he assaulted a teenage girl onboard a Carnival cruise ship off the coast of Queensland.
Australian police say that the man – who was not known to the 14-year-old child – approached the girl near a lift shortly before 11p.m. last Thursday and grabbed her. Police apprehended the man when the Carnival cruise ship called on the next port in Brisbane.
The man has been charged with “deprivation of liberty” and two counts of common assault. The confrontation on the cruise ship was widely reported by a number of Australian newspapers and the international press.
“Bizarre Reason” for a Retired Cop to Assault a Child
Local newspapers report that police objected to bail and the man appeared today in Brisbane Magistrates Court. The assailant was identified as a former police officer from New Zealand, Jeffrey Mark Spiro. Local newspapers reported that after the the former officer grabbed the child, he took her to the ship’s security office because she was allegedly running while carrying a “small toiletry item” which has been identified as a pair of tweezers. The Courier Mail newspaper characterized this as a “bizarre reason” for an “ex-cop” to detain and manhandle a girl to the ship’s security.
The initial news accounts did not identify the cruise ship where the incident occurred. The only cruise ship which called on the port of Brisbane last Saturday was the Carnival Encounter, according to CruiseMapper. A Carnival spokesperson later verified that the arrested passenger was aboard the Carnival Encounter. The spokesperson further claims that the company allegedly has various unspecified measures to assure that Carnival ships are a “welcoming, family-friendly place.”
In fact, Carnival cruise ships have a reputation for having the most bar brawls, the most violent passengers and by far the most physical assaults leading to serious injuries according to the crime data complied by the Department of Transportation, pursuant to the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2010. Read: Carnival Leads all Cruise Lines in Crime for 33 Consecutive Months and Carnival Cruise Line Proves Once Again That It Has, By Far, the Most Violent Passengers On the High Seas.
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The Carnival Corporation-owned Carnival Encounter formerly sailed as the Star Princess for Princess Cruises, operated by P&O Cruises Australia in October 2020, and then operated by Carnival Cruise Line as of 2025.
Photo credit: “Carnival Cruise Passenger Charged with Alleged Teen Assault” – News7 Australian;