Former Royal Caribbean employee Arvin Joseph Mirasol was arrested when the Symphony of the Seas returned to South Florida on Sunday (Pictures: Broward County Sheriff’s Office/AP)
A Royal Caribbean cruise ship worker allegedly mounted a hidden camera in a cabin restroom and hid under a bed to film a woman and her two daughters.
Symphony of the Seas cabin attendant Arvin Joseph Mirasol, 34, was arrested after one of the girls discovered the camera ‘affixed to the counter underneath the sink’, according to a Broward Sheriff’s Office arrest report obtained by WPLG.
One of the victims informed security guards of the incident right away and Mirasol entered the room while they were talking.
The guards detained Mirasol and locked him in a confinement room until the cruise arrived back at Port Everglades in South Florida on Sunday, states the arrest report.
Arvin Joseph Mirasol said he began working aboard the Symphony of the Seas in December (Picture: AP)
All the victims had used the restroom in their stateroom several times while the camera recorded, said the sheriff’s office. They found the camera a day after the ship set sail on February 25.
Mirasol was hit with several state video voyeurism charges.
He admitted to spying on girls since December, when he began working aboard the Symphony of the Seas, as well as installing hidden cameras in several rooms, according to a federal charging document obtained by WPLG.
A USB stick that belonged to Mirasol was found to have child pornography and ‘numerous videos of naked females undressing in the bathroom’, officials said.
Former Royal Caribbean employee Arvin Joseph Mirasol faces charges including voyeurism and producing and possessing child pornography (Pictures: Broward County Sheriff’s Office/AP)
Among them was a clip of a girl who looked to be 10 years old showering with her genitals being ‘the focus of the video’, states the federal complaint.
Mirasol told authorities that he would place cameras in cabins ‘if I like who is in the room’ and that he preferred teenage girls aged 16 and older. He added that as guests showered, ‘he would enter the rooms and hide under the bed while recording them naked with his cellular device’.
The Filipino worker acknowledged he was aware that his actions were illegal andtold federal investigators, ‘I want to control it, but I can’t.’
A Royal Caribbean spokesperson told the TV station that they immediately reported the incident to law enforcement and ‘terminated the crew member’. The cruise line has ‘zero tolerance for this unacceptable behavior’, the spokesperson said.
Mirasol also faces federal charges of producing and possessing child porn. As of Tuesday, jail records showed that he was being held without bond at the Paul Rein Detention Facility in Pompano Beach.
The incident came more than a couple months after 14-year-old girl’s family sued American Airlines claiming that a male flight attendant taped his iPhone to a toilet seat on the plane and recorded her using the bathroom.
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