Ex cruise ship worker who put cameras in guest bathrooms sentenced to 30 years
Topics: Crime, Cruise ship
Britt Jones
Featured Image Credit: Getty stock image
Topics: Crime, Cruise ship
A former cruise ship employee has been sentenced to prison for placing secret cameras in the bathrooms of guests, including those housing children.
Arvin Joseph Mirasol, the 36-year-old stateroom attendant on the Symphony of the Seas ship, owned by the Royal Caribbean Group, was handed 30 years for his crimes.
At the time, Mirasol pleaded not guilty to the charges in 2024, which alleged that he instaled the cameras so that he could produce child pornography, with his victims allegedly aged between two and 17 years old, per NBC6.
Mirasol is due to appear in court in Broward on June 15 due to a plea change after being brought up on local charges and currently faces nine counts of digital voyeurism.
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The alleged crimes Mirasol committed came to light in February 2024 after a quest discovered a camera under the sink of a stateroom bathroom.
Once detained, police allegedly found ‘numerous videos of children in various stages of undress,’ per the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida.
Apparently, a video found in the stash included one of himself instaling a camera in a guest bathroom.
However, that isn’t the extent of his crimes.
Authorities also claim he would hide under the beds of guests whilst they were showering to record them exiting the shower, as well as engaging in private activities.
The Philippines native had apparently been hiding cameras since December 2023 and was sentenced for his crimes in August of 2024.
In October of that year, two young sisters and their mom went on to file as class action suit in Miami federal court against Royal Caribbean and Mirasol.
The lawsuit details that the ex-worker had left a lasting impact on cruise passengers who aren’t sure what he did with the material.
"The fact that many of the victims we represent still do not know if and how their images have been used or circulated is incredibly disturbing. Some of the plaintiffs are children - and once an image is on the internet it is there forever," the plaintiffs' attorney Spencer Aronfeld said in a release.
"We hope that RCCL will take full responsibility for the heinous and reprehensible conduct of its crewmember. And we hope that this lawsuit will motivate RCCL and the other major cruise lines to spend more effort screening their crewmembers so that this type of assault never happens again."
At the time, Royal Caribbean issued a statement, per CBS, stating: "We have zero tolerance for this unacceptable behavior. We immediately reported this to law enforcement and terminated the crew member, and we continue to fully cooperate with authorities."