WARNING: Jolly Dive boat captain by name of Paul sexually harassed me

[Jim Lapenta]

And it's not uncommon for operations to get their friends to post glowing reviews and attack negative ones. Seen it done many times in various businesses. This is why women don't come forward and have to suffer at the hands of predators and their supporters.

 

[northernone]

Just giving a warning out to everyone that Jolly Dive in Antigua employs a dive master/boat captain who sexually harassed me for about 45 minutes. I have already posted my story on reddit and I was urged to spread it around to other forums, I’ll link my original post here but I will also copy and paste what I wrote!! I just want to warn everyone so no one has to experience what I did!
Warning: Do NOT dive with Jolly Dive in Antigua, boat captain named Paul sexually harassed me : scuba

Post Reads:

This is a bit of a darker post, but I (20F) feel it’s important to get the word out and warn others so no one else has to experience what I did. When I arrived to Antigua today I expected just a day of diving, nothing out of the ordinary. I had been experiencing ear problems the week before while diving, but the issue had seemed to clear up and I was excited to dive one last day on my trip. Unfortunately, nothing went as a planned.


The first dive of the day went normal, no incidents, just a slight ache in my bad ear as I did my safety stop but nothing major so I wasn’t concerned. While we were waiting on the boat to do our second dive I observed that the boat captain seemed to be a bit sexist after hearing a few comments he made and immediately I knew I wanted to do this second dive because no way did I want to be stuck on board with someone with that kind of attitude. However, within a minute of trying to descend my ear began to hurt more than ever and the pain spread to that entire side of my head, and when I say it was excruciating I mean it. One of the female dive masters brought me back up to the surface and back to the boat. As soon as she was gone, the boat captain (whose wife was also a dive master, but not the one who brought me back) made some weird comment about finally being alone with me. He then proceeded to ask me how old I am, and I responded that I’m 20. He was probably in his 50’s or 60’s, definitely significantly older than me.


As soon as I told him my age he made a lewd comment about how I was just barely old enough to consent, then proceeded to continue making inappropriate comments that were extremely sexual in nature. He also encouraged me repeatedly to remove my clothes as I must be cold in my wet clothes, but the tone and the vibe were clearly insinuating the clothing removal would be for a different reason. All I really could bring myself to say was no thank you. I wrapped myself in my towel, trying to conceal my body as much as possible as he continued to make comment about how “I’m a sexy young girl distracting him” and how “I must have both boys and girls wanting to **** me all the time” and more comments similar to that. He then said he wouldn’t tell tell anyone if I didn’t and I kept ignoring him as he kept repeating that idea over and over. Eventually I said my fiancé would not appreciate that. His response was that we could keep it a secret and asked if I would tell him. I made it clear that I tell my fiancé everything so yes he would know.


Over and over again he kept making these super sexual comments towards me, even going as far as putting his arm around me and rubbing my back, letting his hand graze around my chest as I clearly flinched away from him. He kept turning everything sexual and brought up how celebrities shouldn’t take naked photos of themselves because otherwise they get leaked and somehow he was able to twist that and he said “no one would wanna see a *my name* and Paul video of us having sex on the boat.” Throughout all this I continuously would stand up and move to a different seat if he got too close.


There was more sexual things said, but this was the majority of it. I kept either ignoring what he said or saying no thank you. By the time the dive ended I was about 3 seconds away from jumping into the water and swimming away, but I saw my brother pop up on the surface and the second he got on board I told him what happened and he passed it along to my dad. After we got off the boat I informed my mom what happened and she ended up calling the police (who were wonderful and super professional and super good to deal with) and they took an official report down and gave the boat diver a written warning and now it’s on file that he spent almost an hour sexually harassing me.


I cannot begin to explain the panic and fear I had during this entire experience and the whole time I was terrified it was going to escalate and there was nowhere I could go as we were pretty far out on the water. It’s been about 4 hours and I’m still shaking. He was extremely inappropriate and it’s disgusting to me that I had to endure this. It makes me wonder if he’s done this before, but my main concern now is insuring that it never happens again. So please, if you’re planning on diving in Antigua (and please do it’s beautiful there) don’t dive with Jolly Dive. I am under the impression they aren’t going to do anything about this. PADI has received an email about what happened and hopefully I hear back from them soon, but in the meantime ESPECIALLY if you have young daughters diving with you, please don’t dive with Jolly Dive.

Thank you for finding the courage to get the word out and help guide others away from that horrible experience.

My respect to your family supporting the decision to let the proper authorities dealing with the guy as well. Self control can be difficult when someone you love goes through something so horrible.

As life goes on I hope that memory and the disgust takes an appropriate place as history as your experiences continue to be full of joy and kindness.

Thanks again for helping the rest of us.
Cameron

 

[Joneill]

Posted on trip advisor
Alleged sexual harrassment by Captain Paul of Jolly Dive - Review of Jolly Dive Center, Jolly Harbour, Antigua and Barbuda - TripAdvisor
Alleged sexual harrassment by Captain Paul of Jolly Dive
Review of Jolly Dive Center
Reviewed today
I must respond to the review posted yesterday
I was a diver on the boat that day.
I spoke with the complainant before the first dive, during the surface interval, and after the second dive. She came across as a quiet shy individual from a disparate family background. Two gentlemen were with her. I believe they were her step ? father and brother. They lived thousands of miles apart from the complainant. They seemed very affable individuals and turned out to be very competent divers
The two dives were lead by Paul´s spouse Cornelia.
On the first dive the complainant had a problem entering the water. I remained on the surface with her, assisted her until she was ready to descend and accompanied her down to the the group. The dive was uneventful. I discussed the entry problem with her between the dives.
The second dive was a drift dive. In this case this means that the boat captain follows the divers exhaled air bubbles in order to keep track of the location of the dive group. This is no easy task in a choppy sea in close proximity to a shallow reef. It demands maximum concentration. Marker buoys are carried by the group to show their location should the captain lose track of the divers. I point all this out because it is extremely unlikely that alleged sexual shennanigans could take place during this period. The skill needed for navigation of the boat alone renders the allegations baseless and verifies that they are completely without any foundation. ´
The complainant had an ear problem and aborted her second dive. She was accompanied to the surface by an instructor. After the dive, I chatted about her problem. Her demeanour was the same as before. She was not unhappy, upset, angry or tearful. She was not isolated and sat near her relatives. There was not the slightest indication that anything untoward had taken place. When the boat docked everybody departed on a good terms.
I will not speculate on her reason for posting this review.
I have dived for over 40 years with dive operations world wide. I have dived with Captain Paul and his wife Cornelia of Jolly Dive for many years. Theirs is an operation where safety is paramount and the humour unique. It is Paul who dives wearing a bow tie. He is one of the most well respected figures on Antigua who will go out of his way to assist anyone
It bothers me that this little girl, for reasons known only to herself, and clearly in need of some help, is able to post such a damaging review with scant regard for the consequences

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Date of experience: January 2019

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Who, besides a lawyer, refers to a person as a complainant in a TripAdvisor post? That and other word choices make this counterpoint feel suspect to me - perhaps a lawyer friend?

 

[RyanT]

It bothers me that this little girl, for reasons known only to herself, and clearly in need of some help, is able to post such a damaging review with scant regard for the consequences

Two things immediately stand out here. First, this poster refers to a 20 year old woman as a "little girl." That's demeaning. Second, this person claims that she is "clearly in need of some help." Is this person a psychologist who clinically evaluated her? Obviously the answer is no. From my perspective this seems to be fabricated defense of Jolly Dive Center.

@s_mc1998, I'm sorry you had to endure this and thank you for having the courage to post your experience.

 

[divad]

...........

 

[caruso]

Just wondering why on earth you’d think I’d be lying,.

Because you could be anyone hiding behind a user name on an anonymous web forum. You could be someone who has an agenda to disparage a particular dive op. Maybe you had a bad set of dives, or you were treated rudely or you felt they ripped you off. You could be a competitor looking to steal business away. Who knows? I don't believe some anonymous person that has not a single shred of evidence to back up whatever it is they are claiming to be true because people lie and scam all the time and I am of a distrustful nature to begin with. The old expression "It's true because I read it on the internet" is a play on the fact that the internet is not always a source of factual information.

 

[Snoweman]

For someone who’s gone through a traumatic experience, I find it sad that others want them to relive it. The whole thing with abuse allegations is the person is believed, it’s this questioning that allows perpetrators get away with it.

Seriously?? She "relived it" through her entire post about the sexual allegations. I am only asking about the belittling of the equipment. I did NOT question anything about her experience, and posted earlier about how the schmuck should soon be out of business. Or... did you miss that post?

 

[Caveeagle]

Dad was on the boat? As the father of two daughters... I can’t imagine how that guy would’ve got off the boat with his dreads intact......

...just sayin’

 

[lv2dive]

My dad and brother would not have handled that situation well. I would not have told them for that reason!

I’m not questioning that it happened as described, just saying it would have been a different outcome with the males in my family.

Dad was on the boat? As the father of two daughters... I can’t imagine how that guy would’ve got off the boat with his dreads intact......

...just sayin’

 

[Esprise Me]

Because you could be anyone hiding behind a user name on an anonymous web forum. You could be someone who has an agenda to disparage a particular dive op. Maybe you had a bad set of dives, or you were treated rudely or you felt they ripped you off. You could be a competitor looking to steal business away.

Except the dive shop--excuse me, a "fellow diver" on the boat that day--posted a response to her complaint on TripAdvisor, reproduced above, confirming that a young woman who had trouble equalizing and otherwise matched the OP's self-description was there that day, came back to the boat early, etc., just as OP described. So no, I don't think you can reasonably assume she's just the dive shop next door engaged in a smear campaign. As to fabricating sexual harassment allegations because she had a "bad set of dives"? Really? Why don't you just come right out and accuse her of being on her period?

Who knows? I don't believe some anonymous person that has not a single shred of evidence

What sort of evidence do you think she should put forward? What sort of evidence, other than the victim's statements, do you think would exist in this situation?