Passengers running about in the nude and having sex outdoors were common on a cruise liner where an Australian woman died of an overdose of a date-rape drug, a crew member said yesterday.
The night manager of the cruise on the Pacific Sky in September 2002, Kathleen Taylor, told the Glebe Coroner's Court in Sydney that she would often have to separate couples caught engaging in sex acts in public.
"An explanation was given like `come on man, you're doing the wrong thing, there's children around,'" she was quoted as saying by the Australian Associated Press.
Asked if these practices were common during her more than 10 years working on board cruise ships, she said: "All the time."
The inquest has been shown photographs of one of eight men named as "persons of interest" in the death of mother-of-three Dianne Brimble, 42, in a hallway wearing only a lifejacket.
"If you were to write up every person that was running around naked there would be 15 to 20 [security] log books," Taylor told the inquest. "Sometimes there was 15 to 20 a night."
`fantasy'
Brimble's naked body was found on the floor in a cabin belonging to some of the men named at the inquest less than 24 hours after she boarded a Pacific Islands cruise.
The coroner's court has heard the usually reserved woman was seen dancing with a group of men in the ship's disco just hours before she died of an overdose of the drug gammahydroxybutyrate, known as "Fantasy."
The inquest has horrified Australia, as a string of passengers testified about the drunken antics of the group of eight men on the cruise.
A recording of a police interview with one of the men after Brimble's body was found in his cabin provoked particular disgust from the media and the dead woman's family.
The man, Letterio Silvestri, then aged 38, complained bitterly to police that his holiday had been ruined by her death.
security plan
The woman's ex-husband, Mark Brimble, last week presented a 10-point cruise industry security plan to the federal government aimed at avoiding similar tragedies.
Brimble, who has become the Australian representative of the International Cruise Victims' Organization (ICV), said passengers had been let down by judicial uncertainties and poor treatment by the cruise industry.
"The cruise industry is increasing in size in a dramatic way, yet companies are largely unregulated and unaccountable for the protection of passengers from crime, and for assisting passengers after a crime has been committed," Brimble said.
The ICV, which started in the US at the beginning of the year, is a non-profit organization that provides support to families and victims of crime and lobbies for legislative changes.
Brimble's plan for improvements in security aboard cruise liners was adapted from a similar plan presented to the US Con-gress. It features security upgrades on cruise ships, including 24-hour camera surveillance and international policing.
P&O Cruises Australia managing director Gavin Smith said Brimble's suggestions would be taken seriously.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion