Cruise Ship Stateroom Attendant Placed Cameras, Hid Under Beds to Produce Child Pornography
Arvin Joseph Mirasol has been sentenced to three decades in prison following his trial for surreptitiously planting cameras in cruise ship cabins and producing child pornography. Photo by Paul Rein Detention Facility.
For some passengers on Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas cruise ship, it became a nightmare of shame and violation when they learned that a stateroom attendant had installed video cameras in their bathrooms and even hid under the bed to video them dressing after their showers.
Arvin Joseph Mirasol, 34, of the Philippines, was sentenced Aug. 28 to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to producing child pornography, the U.S. Attorney for South Florida reported in a press release. He must also undergo sex offender treatments while he is incarcerated.
If there is any “bright side” to this dark tale, it would be that Mirasol’s voyeuristic reign of terror lasted only a few months, from December 2023 to Feb. 25, according to the criminal complaint.
In an interview with investigators, Mirasol confessed to secretly filming adults and children in stateroom bathrooms between when he started working on Royal Caribbean cruise ship Symphony of the Seas and when he was caught in February 2024.
Mirasol’s perversion was discovered when a guest found a camera mounted under the bathroom sink and reported it to ship security, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. The camera was found on Feb. 25. Royal Caribbean Cruise Line notified law enforcement the next day.
Crimes in International Waters
The offenses occurred while the ship was sailing in international waters, according to a March 7 detention hearing ruling and other court documents attained by The Daily Muck. Crimes committed in international waters fall “within the special maritime jurisdiction of the United States,” the investigators noted in their statements to the court.
When the ship docked at Port Everglades on March 3, agents from Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection boarded the ship to investigate. During that investigation, they found videos of children in various stages of undress and naked women passengers on Mirasol’s electronic devices. Investigators said they found images of 11 victims on Mirasol’s electronic devices, dating back to December 2023.
He was arrested and held without bond because U.S. Magistrate Judge Alicia O. Valle found he was a substantial flight risk due to his Philippine citizenship and facing a substantial prison sentence if convicted.
Mirasol made prosecutors’ job easy by including a video of himself installing a camera in one of the bathrooms, according to the criminal complaint.
I Want To Control It, But I Can’t
Mirasol waived his rights and admitted to putting a video camera in guests’ bathrooms. As a stateroom attendant, he had access to the passengers’ rooms to clean and service the cabins. He said he would retrieve the camera, view the videos and “pleasure himself,” the investigators said in a plea agreement obtained by The Daily Muck.
Mirasol told them, “I want to control it, but I can’t.” In his plea agreement with U.S. Attorney’s Office, the predator told the agents, “If I like who is in that room, I place it.”
He said he typically targeted teenage girls 16 and older, but admitted he knew it was illegal to video underage girls. Agents reported finding videos on his devices of girls as young as 2-years-old.
They told the magistrate that two videos were of a 10-year-old girl “undressing, showering, and drying herself in the bathroom. At various points in the video, the child’s vagina is clearly visible.”
Snuck Into Cabins While They Were Occupied, Hid Under Bed
Mirasol said he would also sneak into the staterooms while passengers were showering, hide under the bed and use his cell phone to record them when they were naked.
U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe encourages anyone with information about suspected crimes aboard cruise ships, including incidents of sexual abuse and child pornography, to contact the Homeland Security tip line at 1-866-347-2423.
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