Symphony of Seas employee charged for recording underage girls without consent

An employee of Symphony of the Seas, Royal Caribbean has been charged for placing cameras in the bathrooms of underage girls in order to record them removing their clothes and stepping out of the shower.

As per the cause affidavit filed in the US District Court of Florida, the accused has been identified as 34-year-old Arvin Joseph Mirasol, a citizen of the Philippines. He was arrested on Sunday on charges of production and possession of child pornography when the Symphony of the Seas reached Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

As per the details shared in the affidavit, one of the agents found several videos of naked females and images of child sexual abuse in Mirasol’s SD card and USB stick. Along with that, the agent also found, Mirasol fixing a camera in the bathroom of one of the passengers.

The agents from Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection and the Broward Sheriff’s Office questioned Mirasol for hiding cameras in bathrooms, to which he replied that he had been doing all this since he started working on the ship in December.

According to the affidavit, Mirasol also added in his statement that he used to hide under the bed when the female guests were taking showers with the motive of recording them changing clothes and getting dressed.

“I tried my best to control my behaviour but was not able to control it. I know it is illegal to click pictures and record videos of young girls but I still did that,” noted Arvin Joseph Mirasol, as mentioned in the affidavit.

After being aware about the incident, the Royal Caribbean management immediately acted upon the news and suspended him from the job. The management is also cooperating with the investigation team in order to help them in getting the culprit punished for his offence.

They also released a statement where they mentioned that they could not tolerate such cruel behaviour by any of their employees. The statement read “We have zero tolerance for this unacceptable behaviour.”

Notably, Mirasol is in Broward County jail and his case is being represented by Robert Berube of the federal public defender’s office.

Several residents of the community took to their social media accounts and expressed their views on the news. One person commented, “It is such disgusting behaviour by any person, such people should be given a harsh punishment for what they did.”