July 29, 1999
Web posted at: 1:37 p.m. EDT (1737 GMT)

In this story: Report: employees fired 'A completely silly explanation' Cruise crimes to be reported to FBI RELATED STORIES, SITES

MIAMI (CNN) -- Disclosing that it underreported alleged sexual assaults on its cruise ships, Carnival Lines told CNN Thursday it raised the number it released two weeks ago because it needed time to check into additional complaints.

In the initial count, Carnival said there were 62 sexual assaults reported aboard its ships during a five-year period that ended last August.

The cruise line now puts the figure at 108 -- 93 passengers and 15 crew members.

"We were under time constraints," said Curtis Mase, an attorney representing Carnival.

"We don't keep crime statistics. We had a number of complaints which were phone-ins, or written in to us, and we needed time to compile the information," he told CNN.

The world's largest cruise ship company says 22 of the alleged assaults were reported as rapes. Among those, 16 passengers said they were attacked by crew members.

Carnival said 28 incidents were described only as kisses. The rest involved touching or other "advances."

Report: employees fired

The revised report included actions taken after each allegation.

Forty-nine crew members were fired, even if the company could not confirm the allegations, The Miami Herald reported Thursday.

The initial report was never intended to be considered complete, Mase said.

"We had explicitly stated that we had prepared the information very hastily ... (and) ... anticipated amending and supplementing it."

'A completely silly explanation'

The 62 incidents initially reported were revealed as part of a lawsuit by a former crew member alleging she was raped and sodomized by a fellow officer aboard the Carnival cruise ship "Imagination" in August 1998.

Gary Fox, a lawyer for the woman, ridiculed the cruise line's explanation for raising the number of possible sexual assaults from 62 to 108, an increase of 46.

"When they say they omitted these 46 allegations because they didn't have enough time to thoroughly research it, that is completely bogus," he said.

"It's a completely silly explanation. It's obvious they were trying to conceal this stuff," Fox told CNN.

Cruise crimes to be reported to FBI

The unnamed woman's lawsuit claims Carnival tried to dissuade her from contacting the FBI about the alleged incident.

The 16 members of the International Council of Cruise Lines said this week that ships out of U.S. ports will now report all crimes to the FBI.

The cruise lines had previously left it to victims to report a crime once back in port.

The Associated Press contributed to this report, written by Jim Morris.