Today, the Miami New Times, via Alexa DeLuca, reported that a second Disney crew member on the Disney Dream cruise ship was arrested at Port Everglades for possession and transportation of child pornography. Acting on tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a Special Agent with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), boarded the Disney cruise ship and arrested the 28 year-old Disney crew member after reviewing his internet devices and finding numerous materials depicting graphic child sexual abuse “with children between the approximate ages of 6 and 14.”
Two weeks ago, we reported that a Homeland Security task force arrested Disney crew member Alvin Gonzalez, age 49, on the Disney Dream cruise ship, after they located a video on his cell phone which showed two children having sex.
That case involved a six (6) year-old child who was taking a cruise with her parents aboard the Royal Caribbean-owned cruise ship when she was molested by a crew member known as “CJ,” later identified as Cris John Pentinio Castor. Her parents had dropped the little girl off at a “Camp at Sea program” at the youth center on the cruise ship on the morning of November 27, 2023. The youth counselor inappropriately touched the child under her clothing “in the vicinity of her vagina” while she played a video game in the youth center. When confronted by investigating FBI agents, the crew member admitted that he had molested at least three (3) other children in the youth facility on the Celebrity cruise ship.
One of the most egregious set of circumstances involving the sexual exploitation of children involved two Princess ship employees on the Coral Princess who were sentenced to 45 years in prison for their involvement in creating and/or distributing child pornography. One of the men met a sixteen (16) year-old child who was taking an Alaskan cruise with her parents while he was working as an assistant cruise director. He repeatedly texted and called the minor after she left the cruise and he later arranged to meet her in a hotel where he filmed having sex with the girl.
Daniel Scott Crow, employed by Princess Cruises as an assistant cruise director, was sentenced in 2022 by Southern District of Florida Judge Jose Martinez to thirty (30) years in prison for enticing an underage child to engage in sex with him and take part in the production of child pornography. Crow was thirty-five (35) years of age when he met the sixteen (16) year old child during a cruise in July 2019. A press release by the Department of Justice (DOJ) sets forth the basic facts of the disturbing sexual crimes committed by Crow.
A second Princess crew member, Angelo Victor Fernandes, from India, age 34, worked on the same Princess cruise ship as Crow. Fernandes was friends with Crow and the two men discussed “obtaining children for sex.” Fernandes admitted to federal agents when he was arrested that he was sexually attracted to Crow and sent him sexually explicit videos and child pornography in exchange for videos of Crow masturbating. The two crew members discussed travelling to sexually abuse children as young as five years of age. Judge Aileen Cannon, of the Federal District Court in Fort Pierce, Florida, sentenced Fernandes to 188 months (over 15 and1/2 years) in prison. A press release by the DOJ sets forth the basic facts of the crimes committed by Fernandes.
You can read about these two Princess Cruises employees sentenced to combined jail terms of 45 years here.
Yes, cruising with children presents risks that most parents would not consider. Most cruise lines do not perform background checks which include child predator databases. Most cruise lines and Disney, in particular, require strict confidentiality orders in sexual assault cases. So the public does not hear about many cases of sexual assault and molestation at sea. A U.S. Congressional report in 2013 found that a third of reported sexual assaults aboard cruise ships involved minors.
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Image credits: Disney Dream – Ajmexico from Melbourne, USA – CC BY 2.0 commons / wikimedia; Amiel Joseph Trazo – Broward Sheriff’s Office via Miami New Times; Disney Dream – Ajmexico from Melbourne, USA – CC BY 2.0 commons / wikimedia; Alvin Gonzalez – Broward County Sheriff’s Department via NBC-6 Miami; Celebrity Silhouette – Arvid Olson/Flickr via Miami New Times; Celebrity crew member – Facebook and BrowardMugShot on Instagram; Royal Caribbean cruise ship next to dana Moran article – Courier Mail; Dana Lachlan Moran – Facebook and Instagram; Daniel Crow and Anglo Fernandes – anonymous; Coral Princess – Reuters: Marco Bello via ABC Australia