London: An Indian travelling to the UK on a tourist visa has been jailed for 12 months for carrying out a “prolonged” sexual assault on a young woman during a long-haul flight from Mumbai to Manchester earlier this year. Hardeep Singh, 36, will be deported back to India at the end of his sentence. Singh, who pinned the woman passenger down on her seat during the flight, was sentenced to 12 months in jail at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester on Thursday.
“From the outset of the flight, Singh’s behaviour was despicable. After checking the woman was unaccompanied, he began to invade her personal space, pestering her and making unwanted physical contact, despite the passenger making it clear she did not want to engage him in conversation,” said Detective Constable Catherine Evans of Greater Manchester Police’s Airport Team.
“Waiting until the woman and surrounding passengers were asleep, Singh subjected the woman to a prolonged sexual assault, forcibly restraining her when she tried to move away. Numbed with fear, it was only after she summoned the strength to overpower him that she was able to run away and raise the alarm,” she said. The court heard that on February 23, the woman in her 20s was aboard the flight from Mumbai and Singh was in the seat to one side of her, the officer said.
