A newspaper in Malta reports that the Malta Police have issued what is described as an "European arrest warrant" for a Scottish man wanted for attempted rape after he assaulted a girl from England aboard the Celebrity Reflection cruise ship last summer.

The newspaper says that the incident happened last summer on the Reflection when the young British student’s beverage was spiked by a passenger from Scotland, who then "indecently assaulted her Celebrity Reflectionand tried to rape her." 

Royal Caribbean registered the Reflection in Malta, which is a island nation in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, in order to avoid U.S. taxes, labor and wages laws and safety regulations. Cruise lines routinely register their cruise ships in places like the Bahamas, Bermuda and Panama for tax avoidance purposes.

Because the incident took place in international waters, criminal proceedings must be instituted in Malta where the cruise ship is registered rather than in any of the ports of call or the victim’s home country.

When the girl returned with her family to the U.K., the British police interviewed her and collected evidence. But the law enforcement in Malta did not take steps to arrest the Scottish passenger. The victim retained a lawyer who contacted the newspaper in Malta after he had heard nothing from the Maltese local law enforcement authorities for six months. It sounds like the police in Malta issued an arrest warrant only after the local press placed pressure on them.

Registering a cruise ship in a rocky little island in the middle of nowhere creates a no man’s lands where it’s virtually impossible to arrest and prosecute a sexual predator. This is a common problem that a sexual assault victim on a cruise ship experiences. The police in places like the Bahamas and Panama (or Malta, Marshall Islands, Bermuda etc.) have no resources or interest in prosecuting rapists on cruise ships around the world. 

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Photo Credit: Cruise Critic