Cruise Ship Worker Sentenced to 30 Years for Hiding Cameras in Bathrooms

A former employee of the cruise ship company Royal Caribbean was sentenced this week to 30 years in prison for placing hidden cameras in guests’ bathrooms and recording passengers as young as 2, prosecutors said.

Arvin Joseph Mirasol, 34, of the Philippines, was sentenced on Wednesday after previously pleading guilty to producing child pornography, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida said in a statement.

He was arrested in March on federal charges of production and possession of child pornography, and was also charged with six counts of voyeurism in State Circuit Court in Broward County, Fla. Royal Caribbean said at the time that it had reported the allegations to law enforcement and fired Mr. Mirasol.

On Feb. 25, a passenger aboard the Symphony of the Seas cruise ship discovered a hidden camera attached to the counter under the sink in a bathroom, prosecutors said. The guest reported the camera to security.

The next day, on Feb. 26, the company alerted the federal authorities, Customs and Border Protection and the Broward Sheriff’s Office.

After the ship arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. on March 3, law enforcement officers searched Mr. Mirasol’s electronic devices, including a cellphone, camera, Apple Watch, memory cards and a flash drive.

“Law enforcement discovered that Mirasol’s electronics contained numerous videos of children in various stages of undress,’’ the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Federal agents said the children in the videos ranged from 2 years old to 17 years old.

One video showed Mr. Mirasol installing a camera and pointing it toward the shower, according to prosecutors. Another video showed a girl around 10 years old as she entered a shower.

“The focus of the videos was on the children’s genital areas,’’ prosecutors said.

Mr. Mirasol, who had worked as a stateroom attendant — someone who services cabins and cleans the rooms — admitted that he had been placing cameras in the bathroom since he began working for the cruise line around December 2023.

Mr. Mirasol also entered the guests’ rooms while they were showering and hid under their beds so he could secretly record as they exited the shower, prosecutors said.

He tended to hide cameras in rooms where young girls, around 16 years of age, were staying, he told investigators.

“If I like who is in that room, I place it,” he told investigators, according to a criminal complaint.

Robert Berube, a lawyer for Mr. Mirasol, declined to comment about the sentencing. Mr. Mirasol has been held at the Broward County Jail since his arrest, jail records show.

After his arrest in March, Royal Caribbean said in a statement, “We have zero tolerance for this unacceptable behavior.”