A cruise ship youth counselor has admitted to sexually abusing several children aboard Celebrity Cruises. Celebrity silhouette after a 6-year-old child came forward and reported him for touching her inappropriately while she was playing a video game at the ship’s youth center in late November, according to an FBI affidavit obtained by New times.
Cris John Pentinio Castor is charged with improper sexual contact with a minor in Miami federal court. The FBI says he abused the 6-year-old victim while working at the youth center aboard the ship, which left Port Everglades on Nov. 20 and made a stop in St. Maarten, St. Lucia, Tobago , Grenada and Antigua. before returning on November 30.
During his interview with law enforcement about the incident, according to the FBI, Castor admitted “that he knowingly touched the minor victim in the vicinity of her vagina.” Castor, who had worked as a counselor for the ship’s Camp at Sea program since August, allegedly told FBI investigators that he molested at least three other minor children while they visited the center.
“Castor… admitted to committing inappropriate sexual touching of other minor children in his care at the Youth Center on multiple occasions, while knowingly concealing his actions from the Youth Center’s security cameras,” a statement said. writes a Miami FBI investigator. Based extra-territorial violent crime squad.
Shortly after the child’s parents picked her up from the youth center on Nov. 27, she returned with them to report the sexual assault that occurred that morning, the affidavit states.
“The minor victim then told the program manager that ‘CJ,’ as Castor was known to crew members and children at the Youth Center, had touched her ‘private parts’ inappropriately,” according to the affidavit.
When the ship returned to Port Everglades three days later, the child repeated her account, telling a medical examiner that Castor had touched her under her clothes. Security footage from Nov. 27 showed the girl and Castor, 35, sitting next to each other as he leaned into her lap.
Castor’s public defender, Robert Bérubé, declined to comment.
Celebrity silhouette is operated by Celebrity Cruises, which is part of the Royal Caribbean group. In a statement to New times, a Celebrity Cruises spokesperson said the company “has zero tolerance for this behavior.”
“We reported this to law enforcement and terminated the crew member,” the statement said. “We will continue to cooperate fully with the authorities.”
Celebrity has a global fleet of 16 ships with cruise destinations ranging from Thailand to Greece to Bermuda.
Between 2010 and 2022, almost 70 percent Reported sexual assaults (including passenger-on-passenger assaults) on U.S. cruises have occurred on ships owned by Carnival Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean, which have the right largest market share of passengers in the cruise sector by a wide margin, i.e. 42% and 23%, respectively, in 2021.
New times reported in 2019 that sexual assault was the most commonly reported crime on cruises and that cruise lines repeatedly attempted to cover up the incidents.
Federal court records show Royal Caribbean has been sued twice in the past seven months over separate incidents in which crew members were accused of sexually assaulting adult passengers. Both incidents occurred on board the Royal Caribbean ship. Navigator of the seas boat.
Miami attorney Mark Schweikert tells New times that the stigma faced by victims of sexual abuse and their families can create a significant barrier to reporting serial predators.
“Victims generally face a lot of skepticism. There is a tendency to rush to judgment, to disbelief, while giving credit to the perpetrator. This is something we have tried to change and that we are always trying to change,” says Schweikert, who is not involved. in the Royal Caribbean business.
In 2021, Schweikert won a verdict against the Miami-Dade County School Board in favor of a client mistreated by Miami Palmetto High School teacher Jason Meyers, who was accused of inappropriate contact with students dating back more than a decade and is currently serving a prison sentence. prison sentence for rape.
“It’s all too common: when there is one victim, there are usually many. When victims come forward and find the courage to fight back, that’s the best way to hold institutions accountable,” says Schweikert .
