Grandfather who ‘dropped 18-month-old granddaughter from cruise ship’ charged over death

‘I never want another mother to have to experience this or...to scream how I had to scream,’ says parent

A man who allegedly dropped his 18-month-old granddaughter from the 11th floor of a cruise ship has been charged with negligent homicide.

Salvatore Anello, from Indiana, had held Chloe Wiegand up to a "wall of windows" after the toddler asked him to be lifted up so she could bang on the glass in a children’s play area, according to family's lawyer Michael Winkleman.

However, the window was open, and Chloe fell straight through and onto the dock, 11 storeys below.

On Monday, a judge ordered Mr Anello's arrest.

Chloe was travelling with her parents, grandparents and siblings on the Royal Carribean’s Freedom of the Seas cruise shop in July.

The vessel was docked in Puerto Rico at the time of the toddler’s death.

“Chloe wanted to bang on the glass like she always did at her older brothers’ hockey games,” Mr Winkleman said in July.

“Her grandfather thought there was glass just like everywhere else, but there was not, and she was gone in an instant.”

The family, who are from Indiana, have blamed the cruise ship company for leaving the window open.

“How about a warning, how about a sign, how about something?,” Mr Winkleman said, according to CBS News.

“When you put it in a kids’ play area, you gotta do something to let people know that these can be opened so things like this don’t happen.”

Mr Anello is being held on an $80,000 (£62,000) bail bond.

“I never want another mother to have to experience this or to see what I had to see or to scream how I had to scream,” Kimberly Wiegand, Chloe’s mother, previously told NBC’s Today show.

“I just kept saying, ‘Take me to my baby. Where’s my baby?’

“I didn’t even notice a window. I ran over there and I looked over and it wasn’t water down there, it was concrete.”

Mr Anello is expected to appear in court on 20 November.

Additional reporting by agencies