Student ‘had sex with man in front of lesbian lover’ before vanishing from cruise ship
Do alarming gaps in the law let people get away with MURDER on cruise ships? Thursday’s Daily Mail ‘Caught in a love triangle’
A BRITISH woman who vanished while working on a Disney cruise ship had sex with a male colleague in front of her female lover shortly before disappearing, says a police report.
Rebecca Coriam’s parents have always dismissed claims she was swept overboard by a freak wave.
They say there were no reports of stormy seas in the area at the time and suspect someone may have killed her. Student Miss Coriam was 24 and working as a childminder on the Disney Wonder which was off the coast of Mexico when she vanished into thin air in 2011.
Two of her friends from the ship later visited her parents at their home near Chester and told them she had confided she was scared of being raped or sexually assaulted.
Now documents from what her supporters say was a halfhearted police inquiry have revealed that the Liverpool Hope University student was caught up in a love triangle which left her unhappy and fearing for her safety.
Her disappearance was highlighted in a Daily Mail investigation on Thursday into how deaths on cruise ships are often not investigated properly. If they are in international waters the case is the responsibility of the nation where the vessel is reg- istered – often under a ‘flag of convenience’ with countries with under-resourced police.
The Disney Wonder was registered in the Bahamas which flew in a single officer with no forensic equipment at Disney’s expense.
The notes of Superintendent Paul Rolle of the Royal Bahamas Police, sent by the British Foreign Office to Miss Coriam’s parents Mike, 63, and Ann, 59, show how her final movements centred on her sexual relationships with two crew members – her American girlfriend and a man from Central America.
The papers state: ‘(American woman in relationship with Miss Coriam) left to get more beer. Came back and Rebecca and ( male crew member who was in a relationship with the American woman) chatting.
‘She came back and all 3 went to (male crew member’s) room. (Male crew member) had sex with both. (American woman) left the room again to get beer. Came back and Rebecca and (male crew member) had sex.’
Superintendent Rolle remarks how the male crew member had a ‘very nonchalant attitude’ when being questioned. He was ‘laughing and joking’ and police had to ‘give him a warning’.
The Coriam family and their supporters strongly suspect she was killed because she wouldn’t agree to an open bisexual relationship with the male and female crew members. They believe their daughter was sexually assaulted and that any sex she had outside of her lesbian relationship was forced, and not consensual.
Maritime expert Bill Anderson, who is working with the family, said: ‘Everything has been covered up. Rebecca was a happy-go-lucky person with plenty to live for. The only thing that was upsetting her was pressure being placed on her to have sex with somebody she didn’t want to.
‘But the investigation, by one detective from the Bahamas, and the carefree way they let suspects out of their grasp, beggars belief.’
The Coriam family last month gave a dossier to policing minister Brandon Lewis about their fears that the investigation was inadequate. They want a new inquiry.
UK authorities have so far said the incident is not in their jurisdiction.