Bermuda’s police helped to snare a man who raped a 15-year-old boy on a cruise ship berthed in Dockyard.

Adam Boyd, from Mississippi, has admitted the offence in a US courtroom and will be sentenced this year.

Boyd, 32, pleaded guilty to sexual abuse of a minor in a US Federal Court in Massachusetts on Tuesday.

He had earlier appeared in Magistrates’ Court in Bermuda charged with the offence, but was later extradited to the US.

The US Department of Justice said Boyd and the victim were passengers on the Norwegian Dawn, which was berthed in Bermuda in August 2017 when the attack took place.

Brendan Fogerty, an FBI special agent, said in an affidavit to the Federal Court that the victim told investigators he met Boyd on the ship’s deck after he had been drinking with people he met on the cruise.

The teenager asked for help to get back to his cabin and Boyd agreed, but on the way he asked the drunk teenager several times to go to his cabin instead.

The affidavit added that Boyd, a hairdresser from Bay Springs, Mississippi, kissed, groped and raped the teenager in a deserted area of the ship’s 14th deck.

Mr Fogerty said the boy was “too drunk and froze, not knowing what to say or do”.

The victim and another witness told investigators Boyd knew how old the victim was.

The victim afterwards told friends what had happened and they tried to find Boyd to confront him, but without success.

The teenager later told a family member about the rape and they reported the attack to the ship’s security staff.

The crew alerted the Bermuda Police Service, who arrested Boyd for the offence.

Boyd was arraigned in a US Federal Court after extradition and released on bail. But he was arrested in Mississippi last November after he violated his bail conditions. He has been held in custody since then.

Boyd is expected to return to the court on August 1 to be sentenced. Sexual abuse of a minor in America carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison, with a minimum term of five years, up to a lifetime of supervised release and a maximum fine of $250,000.

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