A cruise ship that had to have 23 members of an unruly family booted off after a mass brawl has docked in Melbourne.
Sign up for Guardian Today Australian edition: the stories you need to read, in one handy email
Read more
Passengers described three days of mayhem during what was supposed to be an ideal holiday through the South Pacific.
The Carnival Legend arrived at its homeport in Melbourne on Saturday, following an unscheduled stop to offload the 23-member family at Eden on the the New South Wales south coast.
An NSW Police investigation is now under way into the brawl that broke out in the early hours of Friday at the ship’s nightclub.
Lisa Bolitho, a passenger, said the “big Italian family” spent the past few days attacking “Aussies”. “Very violent, they were full-on attacks,” she told reporters on Saturday.
“The captain said ‘What do you want me to do about it - throw them overboard?’.
“We’ve all made several complains saying kids were scared. They saw people getting strangled and punched up.”
Bolitho questioned the management’s handling of the incident.
“We were saying ‘We want them either locked up or taken off board’. It never happened and there was another four occasions,” she said. “We dropped them off at Eden yesterday, but that was after three days of violence.”
She said security staff ended up “jumping” the family, and had no choice but to do so. “They deserved everything they got – they were the aggressors.”
Bolitho said her son was targeted by the family, and the pair had to flee and lock themselves in their cabin.
Source : theguardian
Post a Comment