A sleeping passenger was assaulted by a Detroit area man on the flight of Spirit Airlines. On Thursday, the accused man was sentenced to imprisonment of nine years.
The flight was from Las Vegas to Detroit on 3 January when Prabhu Ramamoorthy assaulted a sleeping woman on the overnight flight. The woman was sleeping in the window seat next to him when Ramamoorthy unbuttoned her top, fondled her breasts, unzipped her pants and digitally penetrated her. Ramamoorthy’s wife was sitting in the aisle seat adjacent to him.
The prosecutors reported that this was one of the most brazen of the sexual assaults that ever happened on an air-plane to be prosecuted in the district.
According to the sources, Ramamoorthy was in U.S. on a work visa along with his wife. He is originally from India. He refused to apologise to the victim. The victim also refused to address the man.
The accused man, who is thirty five years old, cried as he was shuffled out of the courtroom after his sentence. Matthew Schneider, the U.S. Attorney, said that safety is everyone’s right when they travel via air-planes. Such behaviour will not be tolerated and anyone who takes advantage of people in vulnerable position must be severely punished.
As reported by The Detroit Free Press,
In pleading for leniency, Ramamoorthy’s lawyer, James Amberg, argued that his client — a college-educated computer specialist who moved to the U.S. in 2015 — lived a clean and productive life before this incident. He had no criminal record in the U.S. or India.
Amberg further added that the accused has been assaulted since the time of his arrest months ago in the prison and will face lifetime of shame when he would return to his country. The jury convicted Ramamoorthy in August after hours of deliberations. After the prison term, he will be deported.
Source: National Public Radio, North Country Public Radio
