Cruise Ship Lawyers Blog
A man working as a chef aboard a Sky Princess ship was sentenced to prison earlier this month for sexually assaulting a young girl during a voyage.
Vincent Lucas, 34, of Goa, India, was sentenced on Feb. 14, 2025, to a year in prison for one count of sexual assault following a four-day trial.
The incident happened inside a teen area, a space exclusively designed for teens to socialize with those in their same age group, when the ship was returning to Southampton, Hampshire.
A Princess Cruises spokesperson told the Daily Mail that Lucas was “promptly terminated.”
“This incident is deeply disturbing and does not reflect who we are as on organizations,” officials with the cruise line said. “The matter was immediately reported to law enforcement and the individual involved was promptly terminated from the company.”
Leesfield & Partners
With one of three Florida offices located in Miami, a city with the largest passenger cruise port in the world, Leesfield & Partners has seen just about every injury type that can occur on a cruise ship. When a lawsuit for an injury is brought against a cruise line, it is often required to be filed in federal court in the Southern District of Florida, especially if the cruise line has what is known as a forum selection clause in its contract that specifies that venue. A forum selection clause on a cruise line ticket is a paragraph or section on the ticket contract that outlines the specific court location where any legal disputes will be resolved from issues arising from the cruise. This location will typically be the cruise company’s home state. At least eight major cruise lines have headquarters in Florida including Carnival Cruise Line, Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean International, all of which have hubs in Miami. PortMiami sees millions of passengers annually.
Last year, over 7.2 million cruise passengers traveled via PortMiami and the industry’s continued growth in the year’s following the pandemic – a time in which there was an industrywide shutdown – is expected to continue. Cruise experts have already predicted a 4.5% increase in 2025 numbers with 19 million Americans expected to cruise this year.
With more passengers boarding these ships comes an increased risk in possible accidents. In 48 years of personal injury practice, Leesfield & Partners has seen passengers injured due to the negligence of inept ship medical staff, painful injuries from hazardous environments aboard ships and from excursion adventures. Sadly, Leesfield & partners has also handled tragic cases of crimes aboard cruise ships.
As common carriers, these ships have a heightened responsibility to ensure the safety and well-being of their passengers. That includes keeping them safe from crimes. In order to do this, cruise ships should employ security with the proper training to handle criminal situations like assaults, theft and harassment. Security cameras in public areas should also be installed in order to monitor passengers’ safety and act as a deterrent for potential criminal behavior. Cruise lines should also perform background checks and screen during potential applicants during the hiring process.
When a crime does occur, these ships must take immediate action and cooperate with eventual criminal investigations. As outlined in the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act (CVSSA), cruise lines have a duty to report violent crimes to the FBI within hours of being notified. Other crimes, like theft, can be reported within 24 hours.
Strict Vicarious Liability
When these incidents are perpetrated by a crew member, the cruise line can be held to the standard of strict, vicarious liability, a legal principle that refers to a cruise line’s responsibility for the actions of its crew even when that action was outside the scope of employment.
To prove this in a lawsuit, a plaintiff’s attorney would need to establish that the sexual assault happened during the “contractual period,” or during the time in which that passenger was meant to be among the travelers that the cruise line was responsible for. However, specific outcomes in personal injury claims brought to courts vary by jurisdiction and case-by-case.
Previous Cases
Leesfield & Partners previously handled a case in which a Canadian woman traveling on a ship was brutally raped in her private cabin by a crew member. This crew member abused his employee status via the use of a keycard which gave him access to passengers’ rooms, including the cabin of our client.
A multi-million-dollar recovery was obtained for the woman in that case.
The firm also handled the case of a cruise ship passenger who was descended upon by a violent group of passengers who violently assaulted our client.
In a case being handled by Bernardo Pimentel II, a Leesfield & Partners Trial Lawyer, a cruise line employee was planting hidden cameras in the private rooms of passengers to film them without their consent. Some of those who were filmed included minors. That employee was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for producing child sex abuse material.
Our client, who was among those who were filmed, was left emotionally scarred, paranoid and sick following the ordeal.
In a conversation with local media about the case, Mr. Pimentel called for accountability.
“Terminating the employee is not enough,” he said. “That does not stop this from occurring in the future.”
That case is ongoing.
Crimes on Ships
Pursuant to the CVSSA – Title 46 U.S.C., Section 3507(g)(4)(A) – cruise lines operating in the United States must report crimes on board to the FBI. These crimes can be anything from assault with serious bodily injury to theft or suspicious deaths.
In Q4 2024, which ran from Oct. 1 through Dec. 31, 2024, the alleged incidents that were reported included 18 rapes, seven sexual assaults, one death, one missing person, six assaults with serious bodily injury and five cases of theft. Carnival Cruise Line was the company with the most reported incidents having had 17 alleged incidents on board including 10 rapes, three sexual assaults and four assaults with serious bodily injury. The cruise line with the second-most alleged incidents, according to the data, was Royal Caribbean Cruise Line. RCCL reported nine alleged incidents in all including two thefts greater than $10,000, four rapes, one sexual assault, one missing person and one death.
This death happened in December 2024 aboard Royal Caribbean’s Navigator of the Seas after an allegedly unruly passenger was in the custody of ship security. That passenger was later identified as 35-year-old Michael Virgil. In a now viral video, Virgil can allegedly be seen attempting to kick down a door to get at crew members who had locked themselves inside a towel room. One witness told the media that Virgil had injured both crew employees and that security had to use zip ties, handcuffs and bear or pepper spray on him before allegedly giving him a sedative. An hour later, he died.
The FBI investigation into that case is ongoing.
This data was last updated on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
If you have been affected by sexual abuse, you are not alone. Help can be found by calling RAINN’s 24-hour Support Line at 1-800-656-4673.
If you or a loved one was injured on a cruise ship, don’t wait. Call a Leesfield & Partners attorney today at 800-836-6400 or 305-854-4900 to see if you are eligible to make a claim.
