Increasing efforts are being made to help shipowners and masters deal with serious crime committed on board ships.
Increasing efforts are being made to help shipowners and masters deal with serious crime committed on board ships.
The steps are being taken to ensure that passengers and seafarers who may be victims or suspects are treated fairly.
In particular, the growth in the cruise industry has been accompanied by an increase in allegations of crimes committed by and against passengers and crew members.
Alleged serious offences on cargo vessels are also ever-present, but notoriously difficult to deal with. This was highlighted recently by the death in June of a young female South African cadet, who was serving on board a UK-flagged containership and died in suspicious circumstances while the vessel was in Croatian waters. She had previously made allegations that she had been raped by another crew member.
South African police requested police in Croatia to carry out an investigation as the coastal state. The Croatian police have submitted a report to the State Attorneys office in Rijeka, although the findings and any likely further action is not yet known.
Despite being the flag state with jurisdiction, the UK did not take an active role in the investigation.
Investigations into alleged serious crimes committed on board ships, such as violence and harassment, are necessarily more complex than similar events ashore, with victims, suspects, vessel flag state and port state often of differing national origin and dispersed around the world. Police are not immediately available to assist.
The UKs Association of Chief Police Officers and Hampshire Constabulary have recently produced a detailed manual aimed at ship security officers and masters, with input from the shipping industry.
ACPO strategy co-ordinator Paul Campbell said: The crime manual for ships security officers was created by the police to support a ships captain or SSO who is dealing with any crime on board a vessel until such time as the police could get on board to take over the investigation. It is essential that the victim or the victims family are supported in all aspects of an investigation and this starts immediately following the criminal act in the preserving of a scene and evidence.
The manual is being initially rolled out to the cruise industry, where in reality most serious crime is reported, but it is also of relevance to commercial shipping.
We are attempting to ensure the securing of the best possible evidence to support a prosecution in conjunction with the Crown Prosecution Service and to support a ship during difficult times until it can get to a port.
Obtaining reliable evidence from victims and witnesses is vital. A key issue for police is that if a victim is identified as vulnerable, then we have the option of video-recording evidence, Mr Campbell said. However, ensuring appropriate surroundings for the conduct of witness interviews may be a challenge on some ships.
A spokeswoman for the Crown Prosecution Service told Lloyds List: As far as a court case is concerned, as with any case, the criminal justice agencies check when witnesses are available to give evidence. Where witnesses live abroad, we have used video links from their home country to the UK court, but there are also times when this is not possible.
Source: Intermanager