An incident on a study trip turned into a crisis for a student from a Cartagena high school when a night aboard a cruise ship led to alleged sexual harassment during a Mediterranean voyage. Reports from the regional newspaper La Opinión de Murcia, part of the Prensa Ibérica group, indicate that the events occurred in the early hours of a Sunday while the vessel was between Marseille and Barcelona.
According to the sources, a group of Italian tourists allegedly harassed and groped a male student on deck 7 outside a nightclub. The student’s classmates who accompanied him at the time rejected the allegations and brought the matter to the attention of the ship’s crew. While some passengers attempted to harass another girl, those attempts were not successful in the moment.
The report also notes that mobile phones were used as a means of communication among the party involved, with those devices being instrumental in triggering action by the Civil Guard when the ship reached Barcelona. The authorities boarded the ship during its stop in the port and detained the suspect in Palma de Mallorca, where he later testified at the police station.
Investigations conducted by the Benemérita extended beyond the initial incident. Security footage was reviewed and a broader file was assembled based on multiple lines of inquiry. After the ship arrived in Palma, the suspect was detained and remained in custody as the case proceeded.
The parents of the students who were allegedly assaulted, including a girl who faced an attempted incident, also filed complaints with the Civil Guard in Cartagena. Testimonies from two young witnesses were gathered regarding what occurred on the cruise. As reported by La Opinión, students intended to file formal complaints with the cruise line after realizing some steps had not been properly followed, or had been viewed as morally insufficient by the students themselves. The families intend to pursue action for what they describe as degrading treatment and the suppression of rights, since they felt the proper complaint protocols were not initiated.
feeling unassisted at sea
Parents describe the girls as feeling powerless aboard the ship, with no one on board offering real support at a critical moment. One family member recalled a cruise crew member promising to follow up the next morning, a commitment that allegedly did not materialize.
As the situation unfolded, the families reached out to the shipping company by email seeking updates and assurance. To date, those inquiries have not yielded the information they need, prompting the families to lodge a formal complaint against the company. Journalistic teams also attempted to contact the company for comment, but those efforts did not succeed.