MIAMI – A west Miami-Dade man was caught on camera on board an MSC cruise ship pulling down a 6-year-old boy’s swimsuit — twice — leading to his arrest on three felony charges after the ship returned to PortMiami, according to police.
Authorities took Sergey Asanov, a 64-year-old Russian national who lives in the Fontainebleau area, into custody on Saturday.
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According to an arrest report from the Miami-Dade Police Department, the incident happened last Tuesday as the MSC Seascape was in international waters.
Police said Asanov and the victim were engaging in “horseplay” in a jacuzzi when Asanov held the boy’s head underwater, then “forcefully” removed the boy’s swimming trunks, exposing his genitals.
The report states Asanov gave the boy his swimsuit back. After the boy dressed himself and got out of the jacuzzi, Asanov “pushed the victim back inside the jacuzzi and forcefully removed (his) pants a second time,” police wrote.
The report doesn’t state whether Asanov was a stranger to the boy.
A Miami-Dade judge found probable cause to charge him with two counts of lewd and lascivious conduct on a child under 16 and one count of child abuse; court records show he was released Monday on a $17,500 bond.