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SINGAPORE – A male passenger convicted of sexually abusing a Scoot stewardess while on board a flight had his appeal against his conviction thrown out by the High Court on Friday (October 16).
The evidence found against Vijayan Mathan Gopal, 40, demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt that he had committed the crimes, despite inconsistencies in the victim’s testimony, Judge Aedit Abdullah said.
Vijayan, a permanent resident of Singapore, had been sentenced to four months in jail by a district court after the judge found him guilty of holding the then-22-year-old flight attendant’s right arm, touching her face, and cupping her hands. , placing his hand on the victim’s right thigh and touching his buttock with his hand.
During Vijayan’s appeal hearing, Assistant Prosecutors Winston Man and Tan Yen Seow argued that the appeal was “unfounded and should be dismissed.”
They raised testimonies from the two eyewitnesses, including another passenger, who saw Vijayan abuse the woman.
Vijayan’s attorneys, Ramesh Selvaraj, Joshua Hiew and Nicholas Kam, argued that the trial judge had been wrong to conclude that the victim was a credible witness when his evidence contradicted the testimony of other witnesses.
The former security inspector committed the crime during a flight from Cochin, India to Singapore on November 2, 2017, after boarding the plane that stank of alcohol and with his pants unbuttoned. He was the last to board the flight before it took off.
During the flight, Vijayan, who was in an aisle seat, had a dispute with another flight attendant because she refused to pay for her food and wine order before it was served. The angry man tried to make a complaint about this stewardess.
To appease him, the victim agreed to serve him food before payment. He also indicated to his co-worker to apologize to Vijayan.
However, Vijayan refused her order when she was served. He later accepted it from an air attendant.
Later, Vijayan pressed the call button continuously to speak to the victim, who was attending to another passenger who was feeling unwell.
When the victim attended to Vijayan, he knelt down and firmly told Vijayan not to press the call button again. She wrote down her and her co-worker’s names and Vijayan’s personnel numbers when she said she wanted to complain.
Next, Vijayan asked the victim where she lived before taking her right hand and stroking her face from forehead to chin. He told her, “You are so beautiful,” before taking her face, according to the victim.
The victim said she felt “angry, uncomfortable and very upset.” She leaned back and raised her voice saying “sir, sir, sir”, but Vijayan replied, “don’t throw your anger at me” and “I’m the flight boss.”
When the victim tried to stand up, Vijayan grabbed her right arm and placed his hand hard on her right thigh.
After the victim managed to stand up and turn around, she felt the man touch her buttocks. The exchange was witnessed by his co-worker and another passenger.
The victim reported the incident to the captain and made a report to Scoot.
In his defense, Vijayan denied having committed the acts and affirmed that the incident was fabricated by the victim and his coworker to suppress his complaint against the colleague for poor service. He offered a part of the seasickness bag with the details of the victim and his co-worker, and images of the passenger comment form as evidence.
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