Florida police arrested a cruise ship passenger after he allegedly exposed himself and propositioned a teen boy in the vessel's sauna.
Royal Caribbean's Explorer of the Seas was sailing in international waters on Tuesday when Anish Shan of Columbus, Georgia, approached a 14-year-old boy around 7 p.m., according to an arrest report obtained by Local 10.
Shan, 21, allegedly asked the boy how old he was – after learning how old he was, Miami-Dade Police said in the report, Shan "started to masturbate" while "making eye contact with the victim."
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The 21-year-old asked the boy if he had ever had oral sex before, police said. When the boy said he had not, Shan allegedly "solicited oral sex" from him.
Miami-Dade Police arrested Shan upon the ship's return to Port Miami on Friday and charged him with lewd and lascivious conduct and lewd and lascivious exhibition on a child under 16.
Shan was taken to the department's special victim's bureau for questioning.
"Post Miranda, the defendant admitted to the victim's allegations," police wrote.
He was released from Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on $12,500 and on the condition that he would not contact the boy, according to court records. His attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.
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It is unclear whether Shan was detained on the cruise ship in the days before his arrest. Royal Caribbean could not be immediately reached for comment at press time.
The number of reported rapes and sexual assaults on cruises hit a new high in 2023, according to stats compiled by the FBI.
There were 131 reported incidents in 2023 compared to 87 in 2022 and 101 in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic crippled the industry for about two years.
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Sexual assaults are the most commonly reported crime aboard cruise ships, according to Transportation Department data.
