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Last Monday, the FBI arrested a NCL cruise passenger in Port Canaveral at the end of a cruise to the Bahamas on charges of transporting child pornography.

Michael Harrison was traveling aboard the Norwegian Sun on a four day cruise to the Bahamas (Grand Stirrup Cay and Nassau) which departed from Port Canaveral on November 14, 2019 and returned to that port on November 18th.

The criminal complaint and FBI affidavit filed in federal case no. 6:19-mj-01826 in the Middle District of Florida in Orleando reveal that the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) performed what it is calling a routine records check of the cruise ship manifest which revealed that Mr. Harrison is a registered sex offender in the state of Nevada who was convicted of a lewd act on a child in the State of California.

When the Norwegian Sun returned to Port Canaveral, the CBP searched Mr. Harrison’s luggage and electronic equipment and found child pornography involving boys as young as thirteen and forteen years of age on his laptop computer. The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) and the FBI then responded to the cruise terminal and reportedly found additional videos of child pornography on Harrison’s computer, including images of a girl as young as ten to eleven years old.

Harrison reportedly admitted to the FBI agent that he previously downloaded pornographic videos of children from the internet and transported the images on his computer on the cruise.

He also allegedly stated to the FBI and BCSO agents and that he downloaded and watched pornographic videos of underage children “to keep himself from trying to have sex with an underage child again.”

The FBI arrested Harrison on charges that he violated Title 18 U.S.C.  2252 A(1)(a) which prohibits a person “from knowingly mailing, or transporting or shipping using any means or facility of interstate or foreign commerce or in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce by any means, including by computer, any child pornography.”

Newsweek reported that Nevada’s Sex Offender public website shows that  Harrison was convicted in California 10 years ago for committing a lewd act on a child in Roseville, California. He served time in Soledad State Prison in Soledad, California, after his conviction in June 2009.

It is not particularly unusual for passengers and crew members working on cruise ships to be arrested with child pornography.

In 2012, a 47 year-old passenger was arrested in Port Canaveral with an extensive collection of child pornography after taking a cruise to the Bahamas aboard Royal Caribbean’s Monarch of the Seas.  A search of his laptop seized after the cruise revealed a total of 3,021 images and 2000 videos of child pornography. A search of the computers, discs, USB flash and digital hard drives at his home revealed a staggering amount of child pornography: 38,731 images and 680 videos.

We have written about the arrests of cruise passengers and crew members on child pornography charges:

These type of arrests should serve as a wake up to parents who take their children on cruises. Yes, there are sexual deviants and predators on cruise ships. A cruise ship presents the same dangers as your home town.

Our advice? Parents watch your kids. Yes, the U.S. federal agents and Canadian authorities will occasionally nab a child porno sicko with images on his iPhone or laptop but that’s probably a fraction of the child porn coming on and off cruise ships. With nearly 30,000,000 people sailing each year, and nearly a quarter of a million crew members employed on cruise ships, there are probably hundreds of perverts out there on the high seas.

Have a comment or question? Please leave one below or join the discussion in our Facebook page.

Addendum: The question arises whether the cruise lines prohibit sexual offenders to cruise? Yes, some do, like Carnival and Royal Caribbean. Most don’t, like NCL.

Photo credit: Michael Harrison (6/20/2019) and (6/5/2018) – Nevada Sex Offenders; Norwegian Sun – Pjotr Mahhonin, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons / wikimedia.