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SINGAPORE: A passenger who sexually abused a flight attendant on a Scoot flight will begin serving his four-month sentence after his appeal was dismissed on Friday (October 16).
Indian national Vijayan Mathan Gopal, 40, was convicted in August last year of sexually abusing a 22-year-old flight attendant on a Scoot flight from Cochin, India, to Singapore on November 2, 2017.
He was found guilty of three counts of outraging the woman’s modesty, by grabbing her arm and touching her face, holding her face with his hands, placing his hand on her thigh and touching her butt.
Judge Aedit Abdullah said on Friday he was satisfied that the appeal should be dismissed, “despite the best efforts” of Vijayan’s attorneys at Allen & Gledhill.
The judge said he found that the evidence the prosecution relied on proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Vijayan committed the crimes.
While there were some inconsistencies in the evidence, the credibility of the victim was not in question, Judge Aedit said.
He added that he saw nothing to support Vijayan’s claims that the victim and his colleague fabricated the allegations after he complained about poor service.
READ: Scoot’s passenger is jailed for sexually abusing the flight attendant, wants to appeal
The victim testified during the lower court trial that she felt angry, uncomfortable and disgusted when Vijayan took her face in his hands and told her that she was beautiful.
When he leaned back and raised his voice, saying “sir, sir, sir”, Vijayan replied, “Don’t throw your anger at me” and “I am the boss of this flight.”
The victim reported the incident to the flight captain and then made a report to Scoot and the airport police.
The defense attorney confirmed on Friday that Vijayan was prepared to begin serving his jail sentence immediately, and the judge allowed him half an hour to speak with his relative before doing so.
