A tradesman who was detained on a cruise ship for six days after a disastrous threesome with two young women has been awarded almost $100,000 in damages.
Air-conditioning technician Daniel Rawlings, 32, boarded the Explorer of the Seas in Sydney for a cruise with a mate around the south Pacific in November 2016.
But what was supposed to be a relaxing summer trip with his best friend Matthew Champion instead allegedly turned into a traumatic years-long ordeal.
The NSW District Court heard that Royal Caribbean ship security detained Rawlings after false claims were made the tradesman had raped 18-year-old woman ‘Ms A’.
Ms A was found wandering the ship ‘naked, intoxicated and disorientated’ after 5am one morning after she went back to Rawlings’ room with another woman, the court heard.
Rawlings sued Royal Caribbean for wrongful imprisonment, resulting in a 199-page District Court judgment in Rawlings’ favour on Tuesday afternoon, almost four years after the fact.
Tradesman Daniel Rawlings, left with his best mate Matthew Champion, right, prior to the cruise ship incident
Rawlings (left and right, with a friend who is unrelated to the case) was awarded $100,000 after being detained for six days of a 10 day cruise to the south Pacific
Judge John Hatzistergos found the ship’s captain, Rick Sullivan, was justified in initially detaining Rawlings, investigating the incident and referring it to New Caledonia law enforcement.
But the judge ruled that his further days-long detention ‘comprising conditions akin to solitary confinement for the remainder of the journey back to Sydney … was not reasonable.’
Flirty moment on the dancefloor
At trial, the District Court heard that Mr Rawlings picked up an 18-year-old woman on the dancefloor at the ship’s Dizzy’s Nightclub on November 13, 2016. The pair had sex in his cabin.
Rawlings suggested a threesome with another teenage girl
The next evening, at the same venue, Rawlings suggested they have a threesome with a second passenger, Ms A, also 18.
The court heard evidence that after a moment on the dancefloor they stumbled back to Rawlings’ cabin.
There, the trio began kissing, touching and undressing each other, before taking turns having sex.
The court heard it wasn’t long before Rawlings’ roommate Mr Champion stormed out with his blanket and sought out a deck chair to sleep on.
‘Not again,’ he said.
Rawlings told the court he pushed the two single beds together and the trio ‘had sex for several hours which he later refined to more than an hour, possibly two,’ Judge John Hatzistergos recounted in his judgment.
But the court heard Ms A fell ill. Rawlings told the court he helped Ms A into the bathroom so she could vomit and have a shower.
‘Whilst that took place, the (Rawlings) stated that he began having sex with (the other woman), but only have (the sick woman) was feeling better,’ the judgment said.
Mr Rawlings and the second woman told the court they had fallen asleep. But later that night, ship security were called.
Ms A had been found naked in another guest’s room after 5am, one guard saying the young woman said: ‘I don’t know what happened. All I know is I am dancing in Dizzy’s and am looking for a bathroom.’
In his judgment, Judge Hatzistergos recalled the ship’s crew members were concerned the confused young woman was too intoxicated to be able to consent to sex, with one categorising the incident as ‘sexual assault – rape’ based upon that.
Ms A’s mother was also worried her daughter may have been drugged during the episode.
An onboard drug screening test recorded a negative result.
Confined in his board shorts
Rawlings was confined to a room by the ship’s crew members, the District Court was told.
It was claimed in court that he was left wearing only a pair of board shorts for two days, and had to wash them in the ensuite sink.
After more than 36 hours in custody, on the morning of November 17, a senior investigator at the cruise line’s Global Security company told the the ship’s crew Rawlings had been detained for an excessive amount of time and should be released and instructed not to go near Ms A, the court heard.
Hours later, the ship’s captain Rick Sullivan met with Ms A’s mother.
The court heard the mother became ‘very emotional’ at the prospect of Rawlings’ release and threatened to ‘throw the suspect overboard if he is released from custody’.
Rawlings told the court on the fourth day of his confinement, he heard Ms A’s mother outside his room.
She was furious, insisting Rawlings could escape and should be bound and restrained.
‘He is in there. He raped my daughter,’ she said, Rawlings told the court.
Rawlings was reduced to tears by the wrongful claim, telling the court it left him ‘destroyed’ and the accusation still impacts him to this day. Rawlings said he would be the first person to assist, help and comfort a woman who he felt was being mistreated.
The tradesman was on board the Explorer of the Seas in November 2016, holidaying with a pal – but it turned to disaster and he was imprisoned for days
The cruise ship was travelling from Sydney to Vanuatu, return, at the time. Above, an island near Port Vila
The tradesman claimed that, while in confinement, he waited two days before he was given generic clothes from the ship’s gift store.
A security guard sat outside the door and would come in every 30 minutes to check on him, he alleged.
On one occasion, the guard came in while he was naked and it was ‘very embarrassing’, Rawlings claimed.
Captain Sullivan told the court he chose to detain Rawlings until the ship returned to Sydney on November 20.
If the mother and Rawlings ran into one another it could have caused conflict, the court heard, and he did not have enough security guards to monitor Rawlings.
Police boarded the Explorer of the Seas cruise ship when it docked at Circular Quay in November 2016 and questioned Rawlings over the threesome incident. No charges were laid
Rawlings was interviewed by NSW Police upon arrival in Sydney Harbour. Officers had no jurisdiction and referred the matter to the Federal Police, the court heard.
The AFP did not press charges against Rawlings for several reasons, including that Ms A hadn’t provided an account of what happened during three critical hours, the other woman had given an account that the sex by all three members was consensual, and a lack of evidence from the crime scene or Rawlings’ phone.
On Tuesday, Judge Hatzistergos found Rawlings’ accounts of his detention were ‘in some respects unreliable and exaggerated’.
But after careful scrutiny of Rawlings’ evidence, the judge found in his favour, ordering payment of $97,344 by Royal Caribbean, whose lawyers sought to stay the judgment.
Rawlings was represented by Bondi solicitor Sharron Vogel of Walker Law Group. A costs application will come before the court next year.
