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Two men accused of sexually assaulting passengers on planes during flights to Seattle were sentenced Thursday.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington said in a statement that Abhinav Kuma, of India, got 15 months in prison. Kumar, 39, was convicted of abusive sexual contact following a three-day trial in May.
Kumar was arrested at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Feb. 18 for allegedly groping the breast of a juvenile while she was trying to sleep on an Emirates flight from Dubai to Seattle, according to court records and trial testimony.
CBS Seattle affiliate KIRO-TV reports that the victim was 17. Prosecutors wanted a 21-month sentence, arguing Kumar took advantage of a vulnerable teenager, causing her lasting trauma. The victim described the assault as a “persistent, haunting presence” in her life.
Desmond Bostick, of Federal Way, Washington, was sentenced to nine months in prison for assault with intent to commit a felony. He pleaded guilty to the crime as part of a plea agreement in April and will serve three years of supervised release following his time behind bars.
While seated in the last row of a plane during a flight from San Diego on June 20, 2023, Bostick repeatedly touched the thigh of a woman in the middle seat next to him, prosecutors said. He also grabbed her buttocks twice when she stood up to let a passenger in the window seat exit and reenter the row.
After the plane landed, the woman reported Bostick’s actions to the flight crew. A federal grand jury returned an indictment in the case in September and Bostick was located and arrested by the FBI on Feb. 9. Bostick admitted as part of the plea agreement that he touched the woman with sexual motivation, prosecutors said.
According to KIRO, U.S. District Judge Jamal N. Whitehead, who imposed both sentences, told Bostock that “to characterize your conduct as a ‘lapse of judgment’ would be to divorce your conduct from its true ugliness.”
U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman said in the statement that, “”The Western District of Washington continues to see an increase in cases involving sexual assault aboard aircraft, and we have a zero-tolerance policy. These cases demonstrate that there are real consequences for this predatory behavior.”
