Two crew members employed by Princess Cruises on a cruise ship in Alaska in the summertime of 2019 will now serve a long time in jail for his or her involvement in creating and/or distributing little one pornography. One of the boys met a sixteen (16) year-old little one who was taking an Alaskan cruise together with her dad and mom whereas he was working as an assistant cruise director. He repeatedly texted and known as the minor after she left the cruise and he later organized to fulfill her in a resort the place he filmed having intercourse with the woman.
Daniel Crow – Princess Assistant Cruise Director
Daniel Scott Crow, employed by Princess Cruises as an assistant cruise director, was sentenced late final 12 months by Southern District of Florida Judge Jose Martinez to thirty (30) years in jail for attractive an underage little one to interact in intercourse with him and participate within the manufacturing of kid pornography. Crow was thirty-five (35) years of age when he met the sixteen (16) 12 months previous little one throughout a cruise in July 2019 on an unidentified Princess Cruises ship. A press launch by the Department of Justice (DOJ) units forth the fundamental information of the disturbing sexual crimes dedicated by Crowe.
Angelo Fernandes – Princess Crew Member
A second Princess crew member, Angelo Victor Fernandes, from India, age 34, labored on the identical Princess cruise ship as Crow. Fernandes was pals with Crow and the 2 males mentioned “obtaining children for sex.” Fernandes admitted to federal brokers when he was arrested that he was sexually drawn to Crow and despatched him sexually specific movies and little one pornography in trade for movies of Crow masturbating. The two crew members mentioned travelling to sexually abuse youngsters as younger as 5 years of age. Judge Aileen Cannon, of the federal district courtroom in Fort Pierce, Florida, sentenced Fernandes final week to 188 months (over 15 and1/2 years) in jail. A press launch by the DOJ units forth the fundamental information of the crimes dedicated by Fernandes.
The title of the Princess cruise ship was not disclosed within the courtroom information, though there may be an affidavit which reveals that crew member Fernandes labored on the Coral Princess cruise ships as early as 2013.
The Crew Members Exchanged Graphic Child Pornography and Discussed Violent Sexual Abuse of Children
Portions of the prison recordsdata in opposition to Crow (United States of America v. Daniel Scott Crow, case quantity 22-cr-14035) and Fernandes (United States of America v. Fernandes, case quantity 22-cr-14046) had been sealed by the courts. Various filings weren’t underneath seal and revealed statements by Crow that he was employed as an assistant cruise director on a Princess Cruises ship. (He beforehand labored for Royal Caribbean.) Crow met the kid as an “entertainer for children on the cruise.” He initially knowledgeable the woman that firm guidelines prohibited him from interacting with visitors so he exchanged Instagram handles and phone numbers with the woman. After the cruise, he messaged the kid every day through WhatsApp and would ask her for photographs and movies of her within the nude and masturbating.
Crow organized to fulfill with the kid at a resort in May of 2020 for the aim of partaking in sexual acts which he videotaped.
In April of 2022, Homeland Security Investigations detained Crow at an airport when he was returning to the U.S. A search of Crow’s cellular phone revealed chats between him and Fernandes. The two Princess workers communicated about Crow touring to Thailand, Philippines or India as a way to interact in sexual exercise with minor youngsters.
Crow obtained a considerable quantity of kid pornography from Fernandes. Crow directed him to supply pornography of pre-pubescent minors and chided Fernandes that the kids had been ”too previous.” Consequently, Fernandes despatched Crow 13 movies containing over 600 photos of kid pornography which included prepubescent minors underneath the age of twelve (12), together with photos of toddlers being sexually abused. The textual content messages and WhatsApp exchanges between Crow and Fernandes replicate a disturbing concentrate on sadistic and masochistic abuse of kids.
A Scheme to Produce and Exchange Child Pornography
The Mercury newspaper stories that Federal prosecutors uncovered a scheme between these two cruise ship workers to commerce sexually specific movies of Crow in trade for little one pornography. The newspaper states that “Fernandes had a sexual interest in Crow, who ‘exploited’ that interest by agreeing to send Fernandes lascivious videos of himself masturbating in exchange for child pornography.” Fernandes, in flip, “sent Crow a series of videos depicting prepubescent children being sexually abused and Crow responded with approval, describing one video as ‘perfect’ and asking Fernandes where he got it.”
The search of Crow’s telephone additionally revealed that he was following the Instagram accounts of a number of different minor ladies, though it’s presently unknown whether or not he met these youngsters on the Princess cruise ship throughout his employment
Assistant Cruise Director: From a Position of Trust to Violent Images of Abuse of Minors and Enticement of a Child
In courtroom papers, the federal prosecutor argued that Crow’s actions weren’t a “one-time mistake” however “calculated decisions based on his own deeply held sexual desires. Crow was a man in a position of trust, acting as a cruise entertainer responsible for the care and entertainment of children,” the prosecutor wrote. The prosecutor urged Judge Martinez to condemn Crow to forty-five (45) years in jail.
Crow’s protection lawyer sought a lowered, most sentence of 15 years, partly as a result of the sufferer was seventeen (17) once they first engaged in intercourse. He argued that in some states “teenagers aged 16 or 17 can lawfully engage in sexual relations with adults.”
Blame the Child Victim?
Crow’s protection lawyer tried to argue that the kid was primarily a “precocious, mature, sexually aggressive” seductress who was “partially responsible” for Crow’s crimes. He argued that the sufferer enticed Crow into having intercourse, going so far as to argue that the minor was a “precocious 17-year-old sexually aggressive young lady fully cognizant of the sexual attraction she created in the Defendant, she used this attraction and built upon it by continuing to text the Defendant sexual, graphic fantasies she harbored.”
Isolation and Depression During COVID-19 Lock Down?
Crow’s lawyer additionally argued that after the coronavirus hit the cruise trade, Crow and different crew members suffered from the results of long-term isolation once they had been required to quarantine of their cabins. Crow’s alcohol consumption elevated when he started engaged on the Princess cruise ship and his ingesting elevated much more as a result of “extreme social isolation and difficult circumstances” related to COVID-19. He would keep sober solely till round 11:00 a.m. when he and different crew members would start ingesting alcohol. From February to August 2021, the crew was in isolation and he would at all times be intoxicated. Several crew members killed themselves as a result of isolation and stress.
Crow advised a psychosexual professional, who evaluated him on behalf of his lawyer, that whereas he was in isolation, the circumstances on the cruise ship had been so deplorable that crew members died by suicide. He claimed that Princess reduce off their tv and restricted their WI-FI. “We had no social contact. Two people killed themselves, but the cruise line didn’t want us to know about that so they cut off all of their news. We had no human interaction.” His father gave a historical past to the professional of Crow’ life on the cruise ship which he characterised as being a “prisoner.” “He was not allowed to even walk around the cruise ship. All he did was sit in his cabin and drink.” His father believed that this led to his son’s alcoholism, despair, and deviant conduct.
His father lamented that every one his son needed to do throughout this time interval was to trade textual content messages with different crew members who had been additionally remoted of their cabins. (The identification of the opposite ship workers was not revealed and it’s presently unknown what number of different crew members apart from Fernandes despatched him pornography.)
Judge Martinez didn’t seem sympathetic to those arguments and sentenced Crow to 3 a long time in jail, adopted by supervision for all times after his launch from jail.
Sexual Abuse of Minors on Cruise Ships Remains A Problem
This isn’t the primary time that an assistant cruise director has been caught sexually interacting with a minor.
Ten years in the past, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (“FBI”) arrested the assistant cruise director, 29 year-old Senad Djedovic, of the Norwegian Star cruise ship for partaking in intercourse with a 16 12 months previous passenger and possessing little one pornography. At the top of the cruise, he engaged in intercourse together with her in a stairwell on the cruise. After the cruise, Djedovic exchanged emails with the woman which included specific photos and a video of him masturbating in entrance of a photograph of the kid.
A Disney youth counselor was arrested on expenses of molesting a ten year-old little one on the Disney Magic in 2019.
Sexual assault of minors by each crew members and different visitors stay an ongoing and largely undiscussed drawback on cruise ships. Approximately one-third of the over one-hundred sexual assaults on cruise ships annually contain youngsters.
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Sources for article:
- Complaint (Crow)
- Factual Proffer (Crow)
- Defendant’s Motion for Downward Departure (Crow)
- Expert Report in Support of Defendant’s Motion for Downward Departure (Crow)
- USA’s Response to Defendant’s Motion for Downward Departure/Downward Variance (Crow)
- Complaint (Fernandes)
- Factual Proffer (Fernandes)
- Defendant’s Motion for Downward Departure (Fernandes)
- USA’s Response to Defendant’s Objection to Presentence Report (Fernandes)