Sydney father’s horror: “I was accused of being a pedophile on a cruise”
A Sydney father who was wrongly accused of exposing himself to a young female passenger on a Carnival cruise and then beaten up by her father is suing Carnival Australia.
Passenger John Sun, who was travelling with his wife, daughter and parents, is taking legal action against the cruise company after the incident on an eight-day return cruise from Sydney to New Caledonia in December 2016.
A statement of claim lodged with the NSW District Court claims that security was told a man had exposed and then touched himself in front of young female passengers on December 10.
Security staff showed a girl photographs of Mr Sun and provided her family details of Mr Sun’s whereabouts.
The court documents state that at 10.45pm that day, in front of Mr Sun's wife and daughter, the girl's father physically assaulted Mr Sun in his own room and accused him of exposing himself to his child.
Mr Sun called security for assistance, but on arrival, they marched him out of his room and interrogated him for one and a half hours.
The security guards are alleged to have stood in front of and behind Mr Sun., who felt that "was not at liberty to refuse the direction to accompany them".
"Security staff acting on behalf of the defendant and the captain accused the plaintiff of the conduct the subject of the allegations," the statement of claims says.
Speaking to DailyMail, Mr Sun said, “The security person told me they knew I did it. They told me they had all the evidence they needed, and I should just confess.”
“I requested to see security footage as I was in complete shock. But they said I'd get to see it later and just to confess and write a report down on what I had done,” he alleges.
When Mr Sun was eventually shown footage of the incident, he noted that the man in the footage was of a completely different build and did not have any tattoos, whereas Mr Sun has many visible tattoos on his arms and legs.
After these "obvious physical differences" were pointed out, Mr Sun says he was allowed back to his room at about 12.45am but was not given medical attention for the physical assault.
Despite the glaring error, Mr Sun said he didn’t receive a real apology from officials.
“The security guy kept on saying it was because I was Asian and that the person who assaulted the girls was Asian. So it was an easy mistake,” he alleged.
In the claim, Mr Sun says he was fearful of further attacks and suffered humiliation and damage to his reputation.
"The investigation conveyed the imputation the plaintiff is a pedophile," Mr Sun's statement of claim states.
Mr Sun is suing the operator for breach of contract, misleading or deceptive conduct, defamation, unjustified or unlawful detention and negligence. He is seeking damages up to $100,000.
A Carnival spokesman told AAP the company wouldn't comment "while the legal process is in train".