A passenger aboard Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas was arrested by Broward County Sheriff’s Office detectives for taking photographs under a 13-year-old girl’s dress while the cruise ship was at sea. Matthew Stilwell, 25, of Pawnee, Illinois, now faces three counts of video voyeurism after the cruise ship returned to Port Everglades on June 7.
Local 10 reported that the incident took place on May 31 inside one of the ship’s gift shops. Detectives said the girl noticed Stilwell standing unusually close behind her with the camera application open on his cellphone while she browsed jewelry.
According to the arrest report, the girl said this happened three times before she ran to her mother and reported it. Investigators later reviewed surveillance video that they said corroborated her account, and Stilwell was taken into custody after the ship returned to South Florida. He apparently confessed to the detectives.
The Allure of the Seas departed Port Everglades on May 30 and returned on June 7 as part of an Eastern Caribbean sailing, according to CruiseMapper. Stilwell was being held at the Paul Rein Detention Facility on a $22,500 bond.
Royal Caribbean said its security team was immediately notified and local law enforcement was contacted as soon as the incident was reported.
This is not the first time CLN has reported on this kind of crime on a cruise ship. In 2018, we wrote about a passenger arrested after taking an upskirt photograph of a young girl on an unidentified cruise ship.
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Images credit: Cover – Allure of the Seas – Zache – CC BY-SA 3.0, commons / wikimedia; Matthew Stilwell – Mugshot – Paul Rein Detention Facility via N.Y. Post.