Man convicted of molesting Scoot stewardess during flight
A Scoot passenger was convicted yesterday of molesting an air stewardess on a flight from Kochi, India, to Singapore.
Vijayan Mathan Gopal, 39, an Indian who is a permanent resident here, was convicted of three counts of molesting the 22-year-old stewardess on Nov 2, 2017.
The victim, who was the cabin crew-in-charge for the flight, had testified earlier that Vijayan was the last one to board the plane, smelling strongly of alcohol and with his fly unzipped. But he was able to walk to his seat, listen to her and passed her his boarding pass.
Later on, the victim noticed Vijayan arguing with another air stewardess over his order of food and red wine. He did not want to make payment upon ordering.
The victim instructed the stewardess to serve him his food and apologise, hoping this would appease Vijayan.
But Vijayan rejected the food, claiming the stewardess was rude to him.
The victim then asked a steward to serve him. Vijayan pressed the call light repeatedly and told the steward he was looking for the victim. The steward warned the victim as Vijayan's speech was slurred and he seemed drunk.
The victim went back to Vijayan, knelt down and told him not to press the call light again. He touched her right hand and stroked her face, saying "you are so beautiful".
He cupped her face with his hands. This made her feel disgusted. She leaned back and raised her voice, but he said: "Do not throw your anger at me... I'm the boss of the flight."
She tried to stand up, but he continued grabbing her arm and put his hand on her right thigh before touching her left buttock. The victim then reported this incident to the captain.
Vijayan had claimed trial, saying the victim and the stewardess made up the incident to stop him from complaining about poor service.
He will be sentenced on Aug 28.
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