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.
Whether injuries take the form of slip and falls on the pool deck or refusal to evacuate amid a medical emergency, Leesfield & Partners is here to help you navigate the waters of cruise line personal injury cases.
Every year, thousands of cruise ship passengers are injured aboard ships for a wide array of reasons. And, every year, thousands of these passengers file personal injury claims against these cruise lines. Most of these claims fall under premises liability, where a cruise line fails to maintain a safe environment for passengers on its ship. However, Leesfield & Partners has extensive experience in this area of personal injury law and has encountered nearly every type of case imaginable. To date, the firm has secured over $40 million for cruise ship passengers injured due to that corporation’s negligence.
Shore Excursion
A new ship with the Cunard Line, a British shipping and cruise line owned by the Carnival Corp., docked in Miami last week, here’s a look inside the new ship on a line who will soon call South Florida home.
Queen Anne, which docked in PortMiami on Jan. 21, is Cunard’s first new ship in over a decade and precedes the South Florida move of Queen Elizabeth, its sister ship. That move is set to take place later this year, according to local media. The ship was docked in South Florida to give travel agents, tourism leaders and media a tour of the massive, 3,000-guest ship.
The ship is currently on a world tour, which began on Jan. 7, according to reporting from The Miami Herald. Locations already checked off the ship’s list include Hamburg, Germany, Mexico and Costa Rica. On Feb. 4, the ship will stop in San Francisco before continuing on to Honolulu.
At least two people and their dog were left stranded, clinging to a buoy in the Tampa Bay over the weekend, officials said in a news release Monday.
The incident happened before 6 p.m. Saturday near Gadsen Point after a cruise ship caused a wake that made their boat crash and sink. Both boaters were injured in the incident and swam to the buoy to wait for help.
U.S. Coast Guard officials as well as deputies from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office found the trio at 6:11 p.m. Both people were taken to a local hospital.
The latest data suggests that cruise ships that sailed in 2024 brought in $2.6 billion in annual tourism revenue to Nassau, Bahamas while bringing in the most annual visitors to date.
Tourism is a crucial factor in the country’s economy and accounts for approximately 60% of the country’s gross domestic product. About half of the Bahamian workforce is employed by the tourism industry.
In 2023, the country had a record-breaking year with over 4.4 million visitors. Before that, the record was 3.2 million visitors in 2022. In 2024, the cruise industry brough about 5.6 million visitors, according to port officials.
Hundreds of passengers and crew were reported among the sick in at least five separate outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness in December, according to reporting from The Washington Post.
Just last month alone, 781 passengers and 109 crew reported symptoms of the highly contagious norovirus. Such symptoms include diarrhea and vomiting. In 2024, the cruise ship industry reported at least 16 stomach illness outbreaks on ships. This is the highest number of outbreaks since 2012, according to numbers reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
While the main cause of these outbreaks has been norovirus, other causes that have been identified include E. coli and salmonella.
A woman was found unresponsive in the water while on a cruise excursion and a man who died in a cruise line security’s custody, prompting an FBI investigation, are among four of the people who have recently died aboard cruises.
On Dec. 17, a crew member went overboard as the ship he was on was headed back to port in Baltimore, prompting a seven-hour-long search. The man in that incident tragically passed away. He was 23.
A woman died at the hospital after she was found unresponsive in the waters at Blue Lagoon, a popular cruise excursion in Nassau, Bahamas. Additional information, including the extent of her injuries or whether she died from ingesting a substance, were not immediately available Friday morning. The woman’s name has not been released.
A cruise ship worker who was accused of possessing child sex abuse material on his cellphone was found by police at Port Everglades, according to reporting from Channel 10 News.
Koen Leonard Eyck, 35, was charged with transportation and possession of child pornography. Eyck was working on Holland America Line’s Nieuw Statendam and has since been fired, according to reporting from Channel 10. There has been no official confirmation as to what role he fulfilled on board.
When the ship docked in Porty Everglades on Dec. 14, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents searched Eyck’s electronic devices. On it, they found his participation in a WhatsApp group chat dedicated to sharing the child sex abuse material and a $35 electronic payment allegedly used to pay for additional illegal material. When questioned, Eyck admitted to receiving the links for anywhere between five to 10 years.
A Royal Caribbean passenger who is accused of verbally attacking the crew and kicking at a door on board has died while detained by the cruise ship’s security.
Michael Virgil, 35, has been identified as the passenger who died on Dec. 13 aboard Royal Caribbean’s Navigator of the Seas. He was traveling with his fiancé and 7-year-old son.
The incident happened about an hour after the ship left from the port of San Pedro, near Los Angeles, California. Cell phone footage of Virgil that has gained traction online shows him attempting to kick down a door, trying to get at one of the crew members.
A man convicted of raping a 17-year-old on a Carnival Cruise sexually assaulted at least half a dozen other people, according to an FBI investigation.
Jalen Thomas Kelley, 22, of Abingdon, Maryland, was convicted of aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse and assault after police say he raped a minor aboard the Carnival Legend in January 2023. During the two-week trial, six other people spoke out against Kelley and testified that he had sexually assaulted them in separate incidents.
Officials with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland said in a news release that Kelley could face a maximum sentence of life in prison. As of Tuesday morning, he had not been sentenced. His sentencing will be determined by a federal district court judge.
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