Priest jailed for groping woman

WASHINGTON: A priest convicted of groping a woman on a US airline flight was sentenced to six months in federal prison on Monday after the victim testified that she was still traumatised by the ordeal, prosecutors said.

Marcelo De Jesumaria, 46, was also sentenced to six months of home confinement by a federal judge who ordered him to register as a sex offender, Los Angeles attorney’s office spokesman Thom Mrozek said.

Prosecutors say the incident took place on a US Airways flight from Philadelphia to Los Angeles on Aug 17 last year when De Jesumaria moved from his assigned seat to the last row of the aircraft, telling a flight attendant he wanted to “sit next to his wife”.

The victim, who had been sleeping, told authorities she awoke to find De Jesumaria touching the top of her leg and then wrap his arm around her body to grab her breast.

When De Jesumaria relaxed his grip, the woman got up to visit the plane’s restroom, then used a call button to summon a flight attendant and report that De Jesumaria had been touching her inappropriately.

De Jesumaria, who was moved by the flight crew to the front of the plane, was met by law enforcement when the flight landed.

In court papers filed before the sentencing, prosecutors said De Jesumaria provided a number of “bizarre explanations” for his conduct and blamed the victim.

De Jesumaria testified that he considered his touching of the victim consensual because she did not reject them and interpreted her silence, because she was asleep, as “coyness”.

The victim said she still felt “frustration, fear and anxiety” over the incident. – Reuters