A former cruise ship youth counsellor has been charged with sexually abusing minors while he was employed as a counsellor by Royal Caribbean.
Cris John Pentinio Castor, a 35-year-old Filipino national, was handed two counts of abusive sexual contact with a minor in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the US on Wednesday, according to the US Department of Justice.
Officials say the ship he worked on departed from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
He was indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami and if convicted faces the maximum penalty of life in prison. An arraignment was scheduled for Friday.
Mr Pentinio Castor is accused of engaging in abusive sexual contact with six-year-old girls who were placed in the care of the Camp at Sea Youth Center on a Celebrity Silhouette Cruise, which is owned by the Royal Caribbean Group.
Cris John Pentinio Castor, 35, faces two federal counts of abusive sexual contact of a minor— (Broward Sheriff’s Office)
Prosecutors say that at the time of the alleged assault, he was working as a youth counsellor.
According to The Sun Sentinel newspaper the father of one of the girls reported the crime to the youth center’s manager three days before the cruise came to an end. The child said she “wanted to share something” after her parents picked her up that morning.
Authorities say that the child told the manager that the crewmember had allegedly inappropriately touched her.
Prosecutors say that the six-year-old told investigators that the suspect had allegedly touched her underneath her clothes while she was playing a video game. Security footage obtained from the ship showed the man sitting next to the girl and reaching toward her lap.
The case was investigated by the FBI Miami Field Office, US Customs and Border Protection and the Royal Caribbean Group security.
No other details regarding the case were released by the DOJ. It is being prosecuted by Assistant US Attorney Audrey Pence Tomanelli for the Southern District of Florida.
“We have zero tolerance for this behavior,” Celebrity Cruises said in a statement to the newspaper. “We reported this to law enforcement and terminated the crew member, and we will continue to fully cooperate with authorities.”
