Suman Das, 46, was arrested at Manchester Airport after the 18-year old victim claimed he touched her between her legs as she was dozing in her seat.
At the time of the assault at 30,000 feet aboard a Qatar Airways Boeing 787, Das’ wife Sonia was sat beside him unaware of her husband’s behaviour.
He initially claimed he must have touched the girl by accident whilst fidgeting in his seat and offered to apologise – but he later said he could not have carried out an assault as he was asleep.
At Manchester magistrates court Das, who has been staying with friends in Bolton since his arrest looked confused and muttered to himself as District Judge Sam Goozee told him: ”This was a sexual assault in circumstances where you took advantage of the victim.
”She was travelling on her own, and it took place next to your own wife in what was a brief but traumatic assault where you touched her extremely intimately.
“This cause the victim extreme distress. No doubt you are having difficulty facing the consequences of what you did that night.
”But the consequences for her have affected her greatly. You are a man of good character, your references speak of that.
“This is a very serious offence and you have not demonstrated any remorse or faced up to your actions on that night.”
Das who born in India was self employed and had volunteered as an aid worker in the aftermath of the 2015 Nepal earthquake which killed 9,000 people.
The incident occurred in July five hours into the flight from the Qatari city of Doha to Manchester.
Das and his wife were visiting the UK for a ”holiday of a lifetime” whilst the unnamed girl was returning to Britain after spending two months travelling in Thailand.
The victim told the hearing: “He knew exactly what he was doing and he wasn’t sleeping. He was looking at me, I saw he was looking at me.
“He must have been looking at me to see if I was awake. He did move very quickly once he saw that I was awake.”
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