An Indian man living in the United States on a work visa was sentenced to nine years in prison on Dec. 13. He was sentenced for sexually assaulting a sleeping woman during a flight.
Traveling on an overnight Spirit Airlines flight that arrived in Detroit on Jan. 3, the then 22-year-old victim said Prabhu Ramamoorthy unzipped her pants, unbuttoned her shirt, and molested her with his hands.
Prosecutors asked for a sentence of nearly 11 years but U.S. District Judge Terrence Berg settled on a nine-year term. He said he hoped it would be “grave enough” to deter others from committing similar crimes.
A jury convicted Ramamoorthy in August. He will be deported from Detroit to his native country, India, after serving his sentence.
The victim, a model, declined an opportunity to speak in court. She watched the hearing from the first row with her boyfriend and a support dog.
At trial, she testified that she woke up during the flight as she was being assaulted. She said she felt “petrified, frozen.”
“Everyone has the right to be secure and safe when they travel on airplanes … We appreciate the victim in this case for her courage to speak out,” U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider said.
Ramamoorthy, now 35, has lived in Detroit since arriving in the United States on a work visa in 2015. He and his wife were returning to Detroit on the Las Vegas flight after a trip to the Grand Canyon when he assaulted the young woman.
He was taken into custody at Wayne County Airport Authority after the victim alerted a flight attendant. At first, he said that he didn’t do anything but later changed his account to say that he “might have” undone her bra and touched her, according to the complaint filed on Jan. 3 (pdf).
Speaking through a Tamil interpreter during his trial, Ramamoorthy said he didn’t want to make a statement before his sentencing. The judge noted a lack of remorse but acknowledged that Ramamoorthy had a right to remain silent.
Defense attorney James Amberg asked for a prison sentence of less than 10 years. Amberg said the conviction will bring “severe and lifelong consequences” to Ramamoorthy and his wife when they return to southern India.
“His life is effectively over,” Amberg told Berg.
Ramamoorthy sat between the victim and his wife during the flight. A prosecutor of the case, Amand Jawad, told the Washington Post that Ramamoorthy’s wife is either complicit or ignorant of what happened.
“What makes this offense particularly egregious and the defendant even more of a danger to the community is the fact that it took place on an airplane. He was brazen enough to do this basically in public, next to his wife where anyone could have seen him,” Jawad said.
According to the FBI, the number of reported mid-air sexual assaults has been increasing dramatically.
During the period between the fiscal years of 2014 to 2017, there has been a 66 percent increase in FBI investigations into sexual assaults during a flight. The bureau said the actual figure may be much higher.
FBI Special Agent David Rodski told CNN that they didn’t know the reason for the increase.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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