Aurora - Cruise ship waiter jailed for assault on teenager

**Ally** · 11-12-2007, 09:05 AM

A CRUISE ship waiter has been jailed for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old passenger in the Mediterranean.

Cajetan Fernandes, 30, befriended the girl while he waited on her family's table during a trip on the Southampton registered P&O ship Aurora.

Southampton Crown Court heard how Fernandes had persuaded the girl to follow him while she was waiting for a friend outside the restaurant one evening.

Prosecutor James Kellam said he led her around the ship to a toilet cubicle, locked the door and sexually assaulted her.

Mr Kellam said the girl described her ordeal as "feeling horrible" and talking about it as "acutely embarrassing".

The girl eventually confided in a friend she met on the cruise ship who persuaded her to talk to a youth worker.

Fernandes was arrested when the liner docked in Southampton.

Megan Toplis, for Fernandes, said he was a man of good character who had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.

Fernandes, an Indian from Mumbai, had worked on cruise ships for nine years and there had "never been a problem or question as to his integrity", she said.

Miss Toplis said Fernandes had not used force, nor used coercion or made threats to the girl.

He had "lost sight of rights and wrongs", she said. "He's shown genuine remorse and is extremely sorry for what he's done." She said he had received no visitors while in custody and had been too ashamed to let his family know what he had done.

Fernandes sobbed and clutched a crucifix close to his chest as the judge sentenced him to 15 months. He declined to make a recommendation for deportation.

(This is Hampshire)