Carnival Cruise Passenger Convicted of Multiple Charges of Sexual Abuse of Minor on Carnival Legend Cruise Ship

There’s a purpose why Carnival cruise ships have the best per capita price of sexual assaults on the excessive seas, as this case demonstrates.

Final week, after a two-week trial, a federal jury discovered Jalen Thomas Kelley, age 22,  responsible of aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse, and assault of a minor aboard the Carnival Legend cruise ship.

The US Legal professional for the District of Maryland (the place Kelly was from) said: “Based on the proof introduced at trial, between January 1, and January 2, 2023, the defendant forcibly raped and assaulted the sufferer, who was a minor on the time, aboard the Carnival Legend.”

Based on the court docket file, Kelley was a junior at Wingate College vacationing on the Carnival Legend which sailed out of Baltimore, when he met a 17-year-old lady on the Carnival cruise ship after a New Yr’s Eve celebration on the early morning of Jan. 1, 2023, in keeping with the court docket file.

Most sexual assaults which happen throughout cruises on Carnival ships contain an intoxicated sufferer. There’s a direct correlation between extreme alcohol offered on cruise ships and shipboard crime, typically, and sexual crimes in opposition to girls, specifically.

Based on the Miami Herald, the minor turned intoxicated on the celebration on the cruise ship. “Kelley noticed that (she) was intoxicated (by his personal admission), realized she was susceptible, and provided to take her to the toilet.” When she stepped outdoors the toilet (in his cabin), Kelley pushed her on the mattress, “face first,” and raped her. “After raping (her), Kelley requested, ‘You good?.’”

Not one of the information accounts clarify how the minor had entry to the celebration the place alcohol was served on the cruise ship.

Based on the court docket file, after the cruise returned to Baltimore, the sufferer returned together with her household house to Virginia, the place she reported the rape to her dad and mom and police. A medical examination at a hospital revealed bruises on her arm and shins, in addition to “vaginal abrasions, tearing and bruising,” in keeping with the court docket file.

Throughout Kelley’s trial, jurors heard testimony from six individuals who accused Kelley of sexually assaulting them on totally different events. In 2019, Kelley was convicted as a minor in a sexual assault case, in keeping with the Miami Herald. Whereas the FBI was investigating him, 4 months after the cruise, he allegedly raped a classmate at Wingate College in North Carolina, prosecutors stated.

Our agency first reported on the shipboard sexual assault final yr. We talked about that “the cruise business refuses to reveal, typically, when the sufferer of a sexual assault on a cruise ship is a minor. Nonetheless, testimony of the FBI earlier than Congress signifies that roughly one-third of intercourse crimes on cruises are dedicated in opposition to youngsters.”