US Woman Claims She Was Raped On A Cruise By Art Auctioneer, Then Contracted HIV

A 27-year-old woman from California, US has claimed that she was raped by an art auctioneer aboard Princess Cruises and during the assault, she contracted HIV, reported New York Post.

The woman, named Jane Doe was invited by a Park West Gallery employee named Aleksander to a shipboard auction. She has filed a lawsuit.

According to the suit, the woman attended the auction a few days later and the man asked to stay back after the event, but the woman declined. Jane Doe then took part in activities on the cruise ship and consumed many alcoholic beverages served by Princess crewmembers. The woman was approached by the same man when she was visibly intoxicated. By this time, the woman was slurring and bumping into walls as she could not control her balance, the lawsuit said. The alleged assailant asked for her name and her cabin number, and the woman gave the details as she "reasonably believed he was asking because he was going to arrange for a Princess employee to help her with activities involving younger passengers," the suit states.

She was invited to the art gallery later in the evening, and she agreed because she was intoxicated.

The New York Post report states that the man offered her a drink and "began talking to her, and he stood very close to her."

The suit states that he allegedly "began to brush his hand up against her leg and then gripped her buttocks." The woman "felt ill, scared, and did not know what to do, so she just froze."

The suit further states that the man pushed the woman into a closet and raped her using a condom- even though she repeatedly said no. The suit further claims that the condom allegedly came off during the assault.

Soon after the cruise ended on January 8, 2022, the woman felt sick and underwent treatments. She was quickly diagnosed with HIV, the lawsuit states.

The suit says that the woman also suffered from "Rape Trauma Syndrome" for many months and could not report the man until November.

The woman's attorney in an email interaction told New York Post, "the only thing more shocking than what happened to Jane Doe, in this case, is the alarming frequency with which rapes and sexual assaults occur on cruise ships."

Princess Cruises told the Daily Beast that it "does not comment on pending litigation."