More than 1,000 people may have been secretly filmed on hidden bathroom cameras aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, according to a new class action lawsuit.
The lawsuit, filed Oct. 15, seeks damages for passengers aboard the Symphony of the Seas who were unknowingly photographed and filmed by their stateroom “while undressed and engaged in private activities” during a cruise in February. USA Today reports this.
It comes just months after the former employee, Arvin Joseph Mirasol, 34, was sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to producing child pornography. He still faces charges of video voyeurism in Florida.
But the lawsuit alleges that Mirasol also transmitted and uploaded images of the passengers to the Internet — including to the so-called dark web — without the guest’s knowledge or consent.
The unidentified passenger who filed the lawsuit said she was suffering from severe emotional problems — including insomnia, physical pain and dizziness — when she discovered she was being photographed.
Arvin Joseph Mirasol, 34, was arrested in February after a passenger aboard the Symphony of the Seas discovered a hidden camera he had placed in her bathroom
A new class action lawsuit seeks damages for passengers aboard the Symphony of the Seas who were unknowingly photographed by Mirasol “while undressed and engaged in private activities” during a February cruise
Mirasol worked for Royal Caribbean from December 1, 2023 until his arrest on February 26, 2024, regularly cleaning passenger rooms, replenishing towels and changing sheets.
He was arrested after a girl found a small camera pointed at the shower when she grabbed toilet paper from under the sink during a cruise with her older sister and her mother to Aruba and Curacao. according to the Miami Herald.
The family then called guest services, who alerted ship security. Mirasol was then held until the ship docked back in Florida a week later.
Law enforcement officers then seized his electronics, including a USB flash drive, and found several videos of women undressing in their bathrooms.
One video clearly shows the suspect installing the camera in the bathroom, prosecutors said.
“The camera is focused on the shower.”
Another video emerged showing a 10-year-old girl taking a shower. reports the New York Times.
“The focus of the video was on the children’s genitals,” the charging documents say.
Prosecutors said there were numerous other videos of children between the ages of two and 17.
Mirasol allegedly admitted to entering the passenger rooms and hiding under the bed to record people naked
Mirasol later pleaded guilty to producing child pornography and admitted to entering passenger rooms and hiding under the bed to record people naked.
“If I like who’s in that room, I’ll post it,” he allegedly told investigators about his hidden cameras.
He then said that after retrieving the cameras and watching the videos, he was going to “please himself,” federal prosecutors stated.
Mirasol also acknowledged that he knew filming underage girls was illegal, and he tried to choose women aged 16 and over.
But in a forensic analysis of his devices, Homeland Security Investigations found at least 11 children in his videos, according to the Miami Herald.
“I want to control it, but I can’t,” Mirasol claimed.
He was ultimately sentenced on August 28 to 30 years behind bars – the maximum possible sentence he could receive after pleading guilty.
He had worked for Royal Caribbean from December 1, 2023, to February 26, 2024, when he was arrested
In the aftermath, at least 23 people were informed by police that they had been caught in Mirasol’s photos and videos.
One of those victims has since filed the class action lawsuit, which claims Mirasol has also admitted “to installing cameras in the bathrooms since he began working on Symphony of the Seas in December 2023.”
It states that Royal Caribbean “knew or should have known that sexual violence was reasonably foreseeable given the prevalence of sexual violence aboard RCCL’s cruise ships,” pointing to a hidden camera incident on another ship in the fleet, the Harmony of the Seas, last year.
The lawsuit also alleges that the company failed to provide adequate security, training or supervision to prevent sexual assault, and failed to notify passengers staying in the cabins where Mirasol stayed. Its victims could include up to 960 passengers.
They are seeking an unspecified amount of damages and a jury trial.
A Royal Caribbean spokesperson told USA Today: “The safety and privacy of our guests is our top priority and we will not tolerate this behavior.
“We immediately reported this matter to the police and dismissed the crew member,” the spokesperson added.
“As this is still pending litigation, we cannot comment further at this time.”
Other lawsuits against the company may follow.
A Royal Caribbean spokesperson said staff “immediately reported this matter to law enforcement and terminated the crew member” after discovering his hidden camera.
Nick Gerson, an attorney with Miami-based Gerson & Schwartz, told the Miami Herald that he represents seven of Mirasol’s victims, including three children between the ages of 12 and 17.
He said he plans to sue the cruise ship giant for emotional and physical distress, saying the consequences “will haunt these children for years.”
“All families are in counseling,” Gerson claimed.
Also a victim told WSVN she discovered that she had been secretly photographed when law enforcement officers contacted her.
‘I really lost it, because [it happened] during your most intimate moments there on a cruise ship,” she said.
“I was with my husband, we had just gotten married a year and a few months earlier, and it was very difficult to know that my personal privacy, our marriage, had been invaded.”
“It was devastating for me to find out that someone had violated my privacy in this way,” she explained.
The victim said she is now having difficulty accepting what happened.
“Emotionally you feel unsafe,” the victim said. “Knowing that someone somewhere could have a camera like that, it’s very difficult to know the reality of this crime that’s happening there, this crime of voyeurism.”
She and her attorney now say they want Royal Caribbean to take responsibility and prevent this from ever happening to another passenger.
“If we hold these airlines, these cruise lines, Royal Caribbean, accountable for these types of situations, they can now proactively catch this misconduct and these people, these individuals who can commit these types of actions against their passengers before it even happens.” said lawyer Bernardo Pimentel.