Ship crew member tortures and rapes passenger

fuad lawal

June 4, 2015 10:39 PM

A passenger on board a cruise ship who was beaten, raped and almost thrown overboard by one of the crew members, is suing the cruise company.

The victim, 31, is suing Holland America after it was determined that her attacker, Ketut Pujayasa, used a master key to enter the woman’s cabin and hide on her balcony until she returned.

The attack which lasted one hour saw Pujayasa beat the woman with blunt objects including a laptop, strangled her, raped her, and even attempted to throw her over the side of the vessel.

The woman’s screams for help were heard by other passengers, who reported them to the ship’s staff members.

However security reportedly took 45 minutes to respond, and even then were unable to enter the victim’s room.

Pujayasa, a 29, originally from Indonesia, pleaded guilty to the incident which took place February 14 last year, and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Now the married victim is suing the cruise company for negligence.

Her attorney John H Hickey said the company were ‘grossly negligent’ for allowing Pujayasa to have a key which accessed all cabins.

He added:

"To top it off, the cruise line’s system is that when the other passengers dial 911 they get the front desk, not security, and the front desk responds to the scene some 45 minutes to an hour later and does not even have access to the cabin?

If this is not the definition of outrageous, I don’t know what is."

In a statement Holland America said: "To our knowledge, no incident like this has occurred before in our company’s 142-year history. It is our highest priority to ensure the safety and security of our guests.

We do strongly refute the statement that emergency calls to our staff related to this situation were given anything but the highest priority."

fuad lawal