Disney lets child molester employee escape

[nytimez]

Interesting post. I agree with your last sentence 100%. However, for me, if I had seen it happening as you described in points 1 and 2, I would be reassured by DCL. The way this is coming out now is not reassuring to say the least. I'd say they chose the most damaging approach from a PR perspective as well. JMO.

Oh, I don't disagree.

It is more damaging in many ways and not reassuring -- but only to those of us who actually hear (or see or read) the story. The approach they took ensured the story would reach fewer people. And that, from their point of view, makes it potentially less damaging. It is a short-sighted point of view that can definitely backfire, IMO, but that is (what I believe to be, and for a fairly good reason) their point of view on this and similar stories.

 

[nytimez]

now here's the scary thing to think about, How long has this guy worked for the cruise and was this the first time he did this or the first time it got caught of film and reported

Au contraire, the scarier thing to think about is that he is almost certainly working on another cruise line right now.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

Why was an 11 year old alone on an elevator to begin with? Where were the parents?

The parents were sitting on the deck enjoying the cruise they bought from the money they worked for all year, safe in the knowledge that their eleven year old can explore the compact protected environment of a Disney ship in safety.

It's not the parents fault. No eleven year old is under 24/7 permanent surveillance. And if (s)he is, call the police for child abuse.

 

[RandomPrincess]

I don't think that parents were on the ship. The Grandmother took her to report it and her Grandmother said they did not want to press charges.

 

[wdisney9000]

DW just read this. I didnt see any other threads on this topic. Mods, please remove if there is.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...server-33-molested-girl-11-ship-elevator.html

 

[BrightImagine]

The parents were sitting on the deck enjoying the cruise they bought from the money they worked for all year, safe in the knowledge that their eleven year old can explore the compact protected environment of a Disney ship in safety.

Might I add, this seems to be the main selling point of a cruise for families... adults can "relax" in their own area while children enjoy safely supervised activities. And up until now, I would have thought that an older child would be able to take an elevator to and from said supervised activities without being assaulted (!).

At the same age I was allowed to bike to and from a nearby playground by myself. Not that I would let my daughter do that nowadays, but I was clearly mistaken in believing that a DCL would allow this sort of old-fashioned freedom.

 

[PatriciaH]

This really upset me and I do not even have kids. I am probably going to cancel our Dream cruise in the fall. DCL really dropped the ball on this.

 

[sublimesting]

This really upset me and I do not even have kids. I am probably going to cancel our Dream cruise in the fall. DCL really dropped the ball on this.

This really won't make Disney take any notice. But if you do cancel make sure they know the reason why. If enough people did this it would actually make a point.

 

[PatriciaH]

This really won't make Disney take any notice. But if you do cancel make sure they know the reason why. If enough people did this it would actually make a point.

Done. When asked about the reason for canceling, I said I was upset at the handling of the incident. The res agent was calm and said she was sorry to hear that. I wonder if they told them to be prepared or if others have canceled? She was only slightly thrown off.

 

[rob0519]

I'd rather him go back to India than the US have to pay for his meals and lodging for 25 years.

Going to have to disagree with you on this one. I think our prisons are overcrowded with people convicted of minor, non-violent crimes, but I would be fine with part of my taxes going to house a convicted child molester for the next 25 years. It's my understanding people convicted of crimes against children have rougher than normal prison life. Instead, he can now go home, live free and possibly assault another victim.

 

[KeithVH]

I'm curious. Besides PatriciaH putting her outrage into action, how many other of you who cruise will be motivated to actually put your money where your mouth is and cancel your trips? I see a lot of talk here about how bad this is (if it were my daughter I'd be in jail for what I would have done to him, let alone the accomplices) but who else here will stand by their convictions and tell DCL to go pound sand?

 

[Violet]

Done. When asked about the reason for canceling, I said I was upset at the handling of the incident. The res agent was calm and said she was sorry to hear that. I wonder if they told them to be prepared or if others have canceled? She was only slightly thrown off.

Good for you. Such a horrible incident.

 

[crispy]

I'm curious. Besides PatriciaH putting her outrage into action, how many other of you who cruise will be motivated to actually put your money where your mouth is and cancel your trips? I see a lot of talk here about how bad this is (if it were my daughter I'd be in jail for what I would have done to him, let alone the accomplices) but who else here will stand by their convictions and tell DCL to go pound sand?

Well, I haven't sailed DCL because they are so expensive so there is really no way to do that.

 

[ULPO46]

Classic Modern Day Disney. Doesn't care about public safety or justice. All Mickey cares about is the $$$ that the numbers(guest) bring in.

 

[dadddio]

I want to be outraged by Disney's handling of this, but the timeline is making that very difficult.

• The family contacted security one hour and forty minutes prior to the ship leaving.
  It took thirty-five minutes to take her statement and for her to show security exactly where the assault happened.
• The security officer then pulled and reviewed security footage of the lobby outside of the elevator. (This footage apparently the crewmember entering or exiting the elevator, but the way the story is written did not show the actual attack.)
  It took 50 minutes for the child to show security where the assault happened, security to pull the footage, review it, and show the footage to the dining manager who identified the subject.
• At this point, it was a mere twelve minutes prior to the scheduled departure time. The Captain and FO are no doubt on the bridge immersed in last moment preparations for departure. Security may or may not have realised how little time there was prior to departure, but it is certainly possible that they didn't or couldn't contact the captain fast enough to stop the boat from leaving port. Given that the ship is registered in the Bahamas and they were going to the Bahamas, the decision certainly may have been made to not delay departure and simply detain the bad guy and have him arrested in the Bahamas.
• Upon arrival in Nassau, he was turned over to Bahamian authorities where he at minimum made a partial confession. Presumably, he would have been tried in Nassau, but the child's guardian elected to have the issue dropped. (In the US, she would not have that option, but in the Bahamas, things are different, I suppose.)
• At this point, DCL had few options. It's not as if they could take him back into custody and drag him back to the US. He was fired and sent home.

This story is a cautionary tale about keeping one eye on your kids at all times, but I'll not hate on DCL for what happened.

 

[dadddio]

Why was an 11 year old alone on an elevator to begin with? Where were the parents?

We've taken a few DCL cruises. It is not at all extraordinary for kids that age to be roaming about without supervision. I have on more than one occasion found myself in shipboard elevators with unsupervised kids. Frankly, I had assumed that their were cameras in those elevators, but I guess that there are not.

 

[Zman-ks]

Au contraire, the scarier thing to think about is that he is almost certainly working on another cruise line right now.

yikes!!

 

[nytimez]

I want to be outraged by Disney's handling of this, but the timeline is making that very difficult.

• The family contacted security one hour and forty minutes prior to the ship leaving.
  It took thirty-five minutes to take her statement and for her to show security exactly where the assault happened.
• The security officer then pulled and reviewed security footage of the lobby outside of the elevator. (This footage apparently the crewmember entering or exiting the elevator, but the way the story is written did not show the actual attack.)
  It took 50 minutes for the child to show security where the assault happened, security to pull the footage, review it, and show the footage to the dining manager who identified the subject.
• At this point, it was a mere twelve minutes prior to the scheduled departure time. The Captain and FO are no doubt on the bridge immersed in last moment preparations for departure. Security may or may not have realised how little time there was prior to departure, but it is certainly possible that they didn't or couldn't contact the captain fast enough to stop the boat from leaving port. Given that the ship is registered in the Bahamas and they were going to the Bahamas, the decision certainly may have been made to not delay departure and simply detain the bad guy and have him arrested in the Bahamas.
• Upon arrival in Nassau, he was turned over to Bahamian authorities where he at minimum made a partial confession. Presumably, he would have been tried in Nassau, but the child's guardian elected to have the issue dropped. (In the US, she would not have that option, but in the Bahamas, things are different, I suppose.)
• At this point, DCL had few options. It's not as if they could take him back into custody and drag him back to the US. He was fired and sent home.

This story is a cautionary tale about keeping one eye on your kids at all times, but I'll not hate on DCL for what happened.

Let me ask you this: If a shot had been fired on the ship 12 minutes before departure - even if no one was hit or injured - do you think they would have departed? Of course they wouldn't have.

We're talking about a felony crime here (the molestation; it would hardly surprise me if a shot fired with no injury is not a felony - but I dont know what level of crime that is).

Also, not sure where you got your timeline from, but security confirmed that a crime had taken place more than an hour before departure (3:57 pm / 5:12 departure). The suspect was not identified until 14 minutes before departure, but that's hardly relevant. Once you KNOW - and in this case, they knew as they had reviewed the video - that there has been a crime aboard the ship while docked in a US port you call the police and do not depart, period.

You can justify it however you want, but according to the story even Disney admits they were required by law to contact police but did not.

 

[dadddio]

Also, not sure where you got your timeline from, but security confirmed that a crime had taken place more than an hour before departure (3:57 pm / 5:12 departure).

I disagree for a few reasons. According to the story linked from the OP, at 3:57, the girl had told security about what happened and led them to the location of the crime. Nothing had been confirmed. In fact it doesn't appear that the crime was confirmed to have happened until the guy confessed in the Bahamas.

Given that the video showed the elevator lobby, not the elevator, it presumably shows that the people at issue were both on the elevator at the time in question. It is not clear whether the actual crime was on video. If it was, then it was not confirmed that a crime took place until after 3:57 (and before 4:48) as security had to go retrieve and review the video.

Either way, the window until the ship sailed was rapidly closing.

 

[Skyway]

[*]At this point, DCL had few options..

They could have picked up the phone during those 12 minutes before departure and notified Port Canaveral police a felony had just been committed in their jurisdiction.

It takes the ship at least another 15-30 minutes to exit the port. And port police have boats.

It would have then been up to law enforcement to decide how to proceed with a criminal investigation, not a publicly-traded entertainment company.