Kimberley Dean
Visitor Submission Date: April 25, 2006
Cruise Bruise Date: October 20, 2004
Cruise Bruise: Sexual Assault
Bruise Location: Bahamas
Age: 41
Home Town: West Virginia
Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines
Ship: Majesty Of The Seas
Details:
On October 18th, 2004 my Fiance` and I boarded A Royal Caribbean Cruise for our first cruise and to celebrate my 40th birthday. After two and a half days of what appeared to be a dream cruise, things went terribly wrong. Between 6:30 PM and 7:00 PM I left my Fiance` in the Casino to use the lady's room. As I washed my hands I noticed someone had vomited in one of the sinks. A female employee came into the restroom to see what was in the sink. I apologized to her that some had done that and that I felt bad that she had to clean it up. The female employee left the lady's room to get cleaning supplies. The lady's room door was set up so it was handicap accessible, it was electronic, which caused the door to stay open for a longer period of time than that of a normal door.
After she left I looked in the mirror and saw two men pass by the door. They stepped back into the doorway and one passenger yelled "Photo OP", and entered the lady's room. I could tell the man that entered the lady's restroom was intoxicated but at first he seemed harmless and just having fun. I kind of laughed and said "you do know you're in the lady's room" and he informed me he just wanted his picture taken with me. The man that was with him stood in the doorway with a camera and at this point I still didn't think I was in any danger, but that all changed very quickly.
The man in the restroom with me began grabbing my rear end and groping me. I was shocked! At this point I saw the female employee return and she had a male employee with her. The employees did not try to enter the restroom door, but rather stood and watched as the man continued to grab my rear end. I became more frightened and tried to leave the rest room. The man that was inside the lady's room grabbed me and pulled me back to the sink area. The man in the door way said he couldn't get the camera to work and so the drunken passenger that was in the lady's room went to do something to the camera. I tried again to leave and was stopped once again. I kept waiting for the employees to stop what they saw was going on, or radio for help or even walk the 17 steps to the casino door and get security. My assailant came back to me and grabbed my rear end again, only this time he slid his hands between my thighs and shoved his fingers up and inside of me as far as my clothing would allow, which was approximately 3 inches, and yelled "Booty call!" I don't know, for sure, if the man that had the camera and was blocking the doorway snapped a picture but they immediately fled. I could not believe what had just happened to me.
The female employee then entered the restroom as if nothing was wrong. I asked her if she had seen what the man had just done to me. She nodded that indeed she had, but never said anything else. I went immediately to the Casino and looked to see if the security guard was at the door, as he had been when I left, but I didn't see him. I walked quickly to my Fiance` and he saw my face and knew that something was definitely wrong. He asked me what had happened and I told him the story.
He sat me down and asked the two passenger's descriptions and the descriptions of the employees. I gave him the information and he ran out of the casino to try and find them. He did not find the two male passenger's, but he did find the female employee. He took her to the purser's desk and got her name and the name of the two male employees at the desk. He asked her 3 times if she had seen what the drunken passenger had done to me in the lady's rest room and all 3 times she acknowledged that she had seen what he had done. He asked if she had seen where he put his hands and again she acknowledged that she had seen where he put his hands.
My fiance` got me and told me that I needed to go and make a statement and so I did give a written statement. We were then informed that the ship's security staff would look into the matter and try to identify my assailant. As we walked down to the gallery area we began to look at photographs of passengers taken on the cruise. We found my assailant's picture and took it back to where I had filled out my first statement and informed the man at the purser's desk that this was the man that had sexually assaulted me. He seemed aggravated that we had taken the picture and asked where we got it. We told him we had found it in the gallery and that this was my assailant. He looked at the photo briefly and handed it back to us. He told us to just get ready for dinner and security would be in touch.
We did just that and as we walked into the dining room I saw my assailant just a few people ahead of us walking to his table. We went to our table and watched to see where he sat. After he got to his table, my fiance` walked over to him and whispered in his ear that he knew what he had done to me in the ladies room and that security had been alerted and he wasn't going to get away with it. My fiance` came back to our table and asked our waiter what seat number and table number my assailant was at an he pointed him out. Our waiter gave him the seat number and table number and my fiance` went back to talk to the two men he had originally reported my assault to and gave them the information as to exactly where my attacker was. They informed him that security would be right down to get him for questioning. He returned to our table and assured me that security was going to come, but they didn't.
He went back several times during the course of our dinner to find out what was keeping them {security} and each time he was told they were on their way and he should go back to the dining room and wait. When he returned to our table again, he asked me if the man that had blocked the doorway and had the camera was at my assailant's table and I replied "No" he wasn't. Just a few minutes went by and I noticed that the man I had seen earlier with my assailant was walking to my assailant's table. He stopped and spoke to my assailant and then my assailant whispered something to him and he exited the dining room quickly and headed for the elevators. My fiance` jumped up and went after him. He confronted the man at the elevators and told him he knew what he and my assailant had done to me in the lady's room.
This story is continued on Page 2. See the links below.
Cruise Ship Sexual Assault
Kimberley Dean Edwards - Sexually Assaulted
Majesty Of The Seas - October 20, 2004
