Thread: Man Accused Of Sexually Assaulting Girl On Disney Cruise

Man Accused Of Sexually Assaulting Girl On Disney Cruise

POSTED: 4:42 pm EST January 4, 2007
UPDATED: 5:24 pm EST January 4, 2007

PORT CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Eyewitness News has learned a man is under arrest for allegedly sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl on a Disney cruise ship. The suspect is behind bars in the Bahamas.

The Disney Wonder is getting ready to disembark on it's next voyage to the Bahamas after it arrived back in Central Florida on Thursday morning. It arrived without a passenger from New York, a man who is now in jail awaiting arraignment on sex charges.

Cast members aboard the Disney Wonder prepared the ship for another voyage to the Bahamas after what turned out to be a troubling trip for one family. Investigators with the Bahamian police said, on New Year’s Day, while the ship was in international waters, a 21-year-old passenger, Lucas George Wicker, sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl.

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A spokesperson for the cruise line said the allegations were first reported to security personnel on the ship, who immediately notified the FBI. The spokesperson said the FBI gave them guidance on what do while they were still at sea and, when the ship arrived in Nassau on Tuesday, the Bahamian police took over the investigation.

Investigators said Wickers told the girl he wanted to show her "something" on a lower deck and, when she refused to go with him, he threatened to throw her overboard. Police wouldn't say where on the ship the alleged sexual assault occurred.

A spokesperson for the FBI said they were assisting the Bahamian police in their investigation.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the cruise line said the safety and security of the guests is their top priority and that they were working with law enforcement.

The victim is apparently a Canadian citizen who lives in the United States with her parents.

Police said Wickers was being held in jail until his arraignment.
Copyright 2007 by wftv.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Kudos to Disney for handling it at the appropriate level despite the bad publicity!!
They could have buried the attack in favor of no publicity and just put him off the ship.
Now I hope the man is prosecuted to the full extent of the law!!

Thankfully the incident was reported and the man was arrested.

Feel sorry for the girl. Disney is one cruise line where children are suppose to feel safe being as there are so many children on the ship.

I have cruised dinsey three times. I think a pervert would see it as heaven which is just horrible. Some parents do allow their children to run wild and I am not talking about teenagers. I see where it would be easy for this to happen. I think it is a really bad situation and I am glad disney handles it when it happens. It is not the first time though. I hope parents will have a wake up call and realize they are no longer in Kansas.

How awful! I am glad the way Disney is handling this.

What an awful thing the poor girl had to go through I'm glad the prervert's in jail.

Originally Posted by jsme

I have cruised dinsey three times. I think a pervert would see it as heaven which is just horrible. Some parents do allow their children to run wild and I am not talking about teenagers. I see where it would be easy for this to happen. I think it is a really bad situation and I am glad disney handles it when it happens. It is not the first time though. I hope parents will have a wake up call and realize they are no longer in Kansas.

I don't get this either. I have been on the Spirit twice and witnessed this both times. Very small children roaming the ship alone.

On our last trip Glenn and I were stunned when the elevator opened and a child no older than five stepped in. We looked outside the doors for her parents. No one was there. She pressed a button, got off on her stop and walked away. Glenn and I were tempted to follow her, and point her out to the nearest officer, but were too stunned to get off the elevator, and were also concerned that they would assume WE were stalking her or something. Since we've never had children, we are really uncomfortable knowing what to do in these situations, although it seems it is clearly neglect.

Felicia, I agree with you completely. If you had taken the child by the hand to take to an officer, you could have been accused of something. It would be hard not to do that, though. My youngest DGS is 5 and he goes no where alone. I never let the grandkids out of my sight for even an instant. You hear it all the time........."I looked away for just a second and they were gone" on TV when they are talking to parents or caregivers of small children that have been taken.

I get amazed too when I see children unsupervised. My girl is either with us or signed into the kids area.

In fact that was a problem on our last cruise with a big group of kids being unsupervised. They were together so maybe it would be difficult if an adult got away with abduction (even tho' not impossible as these kids were probably not using the buddy system). They were getting into trouble and one of them got a talking to by my hubby and me when he shoved my daughter in the face. Don't think his parents were around (probably in the casino as they were late into the night while their kids were roaming the halls, knocking on doors).

There was also the case on the Diamond Princess. Two boys said a man came on to them in a sauna. Why were 12-yr-old boys in a sauna without a parent? If the guy was smart, he would have left as soon as the kids came in, if he wasn't a perv.