Karan Seechurn is from Mauritius.
AB Wire
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NEW YORK: An Indian American cruise ship employee, Karan Seechurn, 26, who entered a cabin and sexually abused a female passenger while she slept, has been sentenced to 13 months in prison.
Seechurn, 26, was sentenced in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, after pleading guilty in April to abusive sexual contact, reported CBS.
Federal prosecutors say Seechurn was responsible for restocking guest room minibars. He later admitted he was off-duty when he entered the cabin and touched the woman’s genitalia on December 23, 2014. The woman awoke and pushed Seechurn off of her. He threatened to burn the ship if she told anyone.
Seechurn, who is from Mauritius, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, was detained when the ship docked in Bayonne. Along with 13 months in prison, Seechurn was also sentenced to a year of supervised release. He had initially faced up to three years in prison.
Cruise Law News reported that although federal prosecutors declined to identify the cruise line or cruise ship, the crime occurred on Royal Caribbean’s new cruise ship the Quantum of the Seas sailing from Bayonne, New Jersey, last December.
The News reported that because Seecharn has already served 7 months and 2 weeks, he will be given credit for time served and will serve a maximum of another 5 months and 2 weeks. If released early, which is probable, he will serve less than a year in jail and will be home by Christmas.
Last month, a Disney crew member who pled guilty to molesting a client’s minor daughter on the Disney Dream, was sentenced to 70 months in jail.