There is a reason why Carnival cruise ships have the highest per capita rate of sexual assaults on the high seas, as this case demonstrates.
Last week, after a two-week trial, a federal jury found Jalen Thomas Kelley, age 22, guilty of aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse, and assault of a minor aboard the Carnival Legend cruise ship.
The United States Attorney for the District of Maryland (where Kelly was from) stated: “According to the evidence presented at trial, between January 1, and January 2, 2023, the defendant forcibly raped and assaulted the victim, who was a minor at the time, aboard the Carnival Legend.”
According to the court file, Kelley was a junior at Wingate University vacationing on the Carnival Legend which sailed out of Baltimore, when he met a 17-year-old girl on the Carnival cruise ship after a New Year’s Eve party on the early morning of Jan. 1, 2023, according to the court file.
Most sexual assaults which occur during cruises on Carnival ships involve an intoxicated victim. There is a direct correlation between excessive alcohol sold on cruise ships and shipboard crime, in general, and sexual crimes against women, in particular.
According to the Miami Herald, the minor became intoxicated at the party on the cruise ship. “Kelley saw that (she) was intoxicated (by his own admission), realized she was vulnerable, and offered to take her to the bathroom.” When she stepped outside the bathroom (in his cabin), Kelley pushed her on the bed, “face first,” and raped her. “After raping (her), Kelley asked, ‘You good?.’”
None of the news accounts explain how the minor had access to the party where alcohol was served on the cruise ship.
According to the court file, after the cruise returned to Baltimore, the victim returned with her family home to Virginia, where she reported the rape to her parents and police. A medical examination at a hospital revealed bruises on her arm and shins, as well as “vaginal abrasions, tearing and bruising,” according to the court file.
During Kelley’s trial, jurors heard testimony from six people who accused Kelley of sexually assaulting them on different occasions. In 2019, Kelley was convicted as a minor in a sexual assault case, according to the Miami Herald. While the FBI was investigating him, four months after the cruise, he allegedly raped a classmate at Wingate University in North Carolina, prosecutors said.
Our firm first reported on the shipboard sexual assault last year. We mentioned that “the cruise industry refuses to disclose, generally, when the victim of a sexual assault on a cruise ship is a minor. However, testimony of the FBI before Congress indicates that approximately one-third of sex crimes on cruises are committed against children.”
Carnival has a per capita sexual assault rape more than 20 to 25 states in the U.S., depending on the year. With it booze-permeated “fun ship” atmosphere, taking a cruise on a Carnival ship is the one of the most dangerous place to take your daughters on vacation.
Kelly potentially faces life in prison. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for May.
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Image credit: Carnival Legend – Carnival Cruise Line website; Jalen Kelley – Gaston County Jail via Recently Booked; Carnival Legend – Yankeesman312 – CC BY-SA 4.0 wikipedia / creative commons.