A 31-year-old man who admitted to sexually assaulting a female passenger throughout a four-hour flight from New Jersey to Montana was sentenced to five years probation and $5,100 in fines — but avoided any jail time.
Piyush Mathew, of Robbinsville Township, N.J, was accused of raising the arm rest between his aisle seat and “Jane Doe’s” middle seat on a United Airlines flight last September, after which he molested the woman “for the duration of the flight,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Montana.
“Mathew, pretending to be asleep, touched Doe multiple times on different parts of her body, including her thighs, fingers, arms, stomach, and breasts,” prosecutors said in a Thursday statement.
The plane was headed to Bozeman, Mont., though which New Jersey airport the flight departed from is unclear. It’s also not known if the woman is a Garden State resident.
The victim told investigators she intended to tell the flight crew about her experience, but felt uncomfortable when Mathew stood behind her as the plane was deboarding.
She then pretended to know another male passenger who was also getting off the plane so that Mathew would leave her alone. That passenger relayed his encounter with the victim to police officers.
“The male passenger reported to law enforcement that Doe looked upset and as if she were about to cry,” prosecutors said.
When approached by police officers in New Jersey after his return, Mathew allegedly asked, “Did she complain that I was touching her?”
Mathew, who pleaded guilty in March, could have faced up to two years in prison, a $250,000 fine and at least five years of supervised release.
