A crew member aboard the Celebrity Xcel was arrested by Broward Sheriff’s Office (BSO) deputies at Port Everglades after sexually assaulting a fellow crew member, according to Local 10 News. The Celebrity Cruises ship was on a 7-day Caribbean voyage when the incident took place.
The crew member has been identified as Wigawa Putu Janu, age 36, of Jembrana, Indonesia. The arrest report indicates the victim told investigators she had been drinking with Putu Janu after work and remembered taking two shots of alcohol before blacking out. She later woke up naked in his bed bleeding, with marks on her shoulder and back.
BSO detective Kyle Schnakenberg said surveillance footage showed the victim falling to the ground, appearing heavily intoxicated, and unable to stand or walk on her own as Putu Janu tried to lift her and take her to his cabin. Putu Janu was later arrested on a sexual battery charge after the Celebrity Xcel returned to Port Everglades. A Broward judge ordered that he be held without bond.
Sexual assaults and rapes are a common problem on cruises that have plagued the industry for decades. We previously wrote about a sexual assault aboard the Celebrity Equinox almost 15 years ago when a perfume sales assistant was raped after visiting the ship’s crew bar. There have been hundreds of such incidents since then.
The recent sexual assault on the Celebrity Xcel will not be included in the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) quarterly cruise crime data. Cruise lines are required to report crimes only when the assailant or victim are U.S. citizens as pursuant with the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2010. Given the vast majority of crew members are non-U.S. citizens, crew on crew incidents are not reported.
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