The 5-year-old girl who fell 50 feet off a Disney Dream cruise ship in June was encouraged by her mother to pose for a photo at an open porthole before the child fell through it into the ocean, according to newly obtained documents.
The highly publicized accident, which happened as the ship was returning to Fort Lauderdale, at first skewered suspicion toward the child’s father amid claims that he had placed the child on a railing. But recent findings concluded the mother had committed an “irresponsible” act that led to the “life-threatening situation.”
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The father jumped in after their child and kept them afloat until a crew rescue team arrived. Both survived.
According to the Broward County sheriff’s department report cited by the New York Post, the mother said she pointed to the opening and “offered her daughter to take a picture in the porthole.”
“[The mom] assumed the porthole had a window or plexiglass, and she thought that [her daughter] would be caught by the glass, but instead, she kept falling,” the report read.
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Multiple photos taken by the mother showed the sequence, the report said.
Detective Christopher Favitta questioned the mother’s account that she was unaware of the unprotected porthole.
“Upon looking at the window myself, as a prudent person, I immediately saw that the window was open to the air, and did not have a covering,” he commented in the report, per the tabloid.
“This act, facilitated by [the mother] placed the child in a life-threatening situation. As a result, the child fell from the ship and into the water, in an avoidable accident,” he observed.
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Favitta submitted the case to the Broward County State Attorney’s Office for more consideration, People noted.
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Melissa Kelly, the assistant state attorney in charge of the office’s child fatalities and abuse unit, ruled that the evidence added up to an accident and not something more sinister.
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“While the defendant’s conduct is arguably negligent and irresponsible, it does not rise to the egregious level of conduct necessary to establish criminal culpable negligence,” Kelly wrote in her memo, per People.“Therefore, in light of the facts of this case along with the relevant case law, I am declining one count of child neglect without great bodily harm.”
Mom’s ‘Irresponsible’ Act Revealed In New Reports On 5-Year-Old’s Fall From Cruise
