Drunk plane passenger blames booze habit for sexual assault
A DRUNKEN plane passenger who groped a woman mid-flight said he turned to alcohol as a youth after his mother was convicted of murdering his father’s new pregnant wife.
Father-of-three Saranjeet Bassi, 29, reached between the gap in the seats in front of him to squeeze the woman during the flight from Qatar to Heathrow on December 12 last year.
He had been flying home to Scotland after visiting his newborn baby in India, Isleworth Crown Court in London heard.
In a victim impact statement, the woman – who had been travelling with her two young children – said: ‘I feel what he did was sexual. I have a mix of emotions, I was angry and wanted him off the flight. I was with my kids and it makes me feel sick and violated.’
Bassi, of Causewayhead, Stirling, was convicted of sexually assaulting the woman on the Qatar Airways flight.
He said he began drinking after his mother, Gurmit Bassi, 52, was convicted at the High Court in Glasgow of murdering his restaurateur father’s pregnant new wife in 1998.
Mrs Bassi and co-accused, Christopher Jones, then 25, were found guilty of stabbing to death Rajwinder Bassi, 32, in her Glasgow flat.
The court then heard that mother-oftwo Bassi had paid Jones £500 and some jewellery to kill her rival.
In court in London last week, Saranjeet Bassi was sentenced to a two-year community order, ordered to complete 200 hours community service and pay £1,000 costs.
Bassi must also attend at least 100 days of a probation-service ordered rehabilitation activity, which includes an alcohol treatment requirement.
Matthew Pardoe, defending, said: ‘Alcohol seems to have played a part and this was a consequence of having consumed too much and the abuse of alcohol that has played a part in his life up until now.’
Recorder Stephen Bellamy-James, QC, said: ‘You do need help with your alcohol addiction and mental health. You have a last opportunity to try to reform your behaviour and conduct.’
Bassi was also ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for five years.