Taxi driver touched girls on plane

Jagtar Sandhu, aged 54, was sat behind his victims on the flight from Toronto to Manchester and repeatedly asked if they could 'budge up' so he could watch an in-flight movie with them.

He went on to rub one of the women on the thigh and stroke the other on her breast while they were sleeping in August last year.

Sandhu, of Stanford Road, Blakenhall, Wolverhampton, denied sexual assault and in court accused the women of touching each other inappropriately.

The accusation was dismissed as 'tasteless' by a district judge who found him guilty of the charge. He will be sentenced at a later date.

The sisters, who regularly make the trip from Manchester to Canada to visit their father, were three hours into their 3,400 mile flight when Sandhu started pestering them.

Manchester Magistrates Court heard he would tap them on the shoulder to get their attention and even asked one of them if they were lesbians.

The sisters eventually took 'shifts' to sleep so one could keep an eye on Sandhu. Eventually they both fell asleep but woke up to find Sandhu leaning over them rubbing one on the thigh and stroking the other on her breast before saying "wait until we get back to Manchester.''

The victims - both in their 20s - were said to be were ''too scared to move'' and waited until their Toronto flight landed at Manchester Airport where they told their mother about the attack at the arrivals lounge.

The younger sister told the hearing: "Me and my sister were watching TV and this man peered round and asked my sister what we were watching. Then he asked if he could watch with us because there was a free seat next to us.

"He kept looking at us and asking us questions and he then got up and nudged my sister and said 'come on budge up.' We said no and sat down but still had his head between the seats. I went to the toilet and came back and my sister was really red and slouched down in her seat and she told me he had asked if we were both lesbians.

"We were alarmed so we took it in turns to sleep but I then fell asleep and woke up to him rubbing my thigh area. I immediately batted his hand away from me because I didn't realise what was going on.

"Then he got out his phone and started saying something in another language and said wait till we're back in Manchester which I took as a threat. I thought I was about to die.

"I was too scared to say anything so I just sat back down in my seat. Once we were off the plane we were walking through customs he kept joining the queue and then going to the back again like he was watching us.

"Once we were off the plane we met my mother and told her what had happened and when we got home we phoned the police. I was just scared I genuinely didn't think I was going to get off the plane. I just felt sick and just wanted to get home."

The elder sister, added: "My sister went to the toilet and he asked if I was lesbian. I thought it was weird but the last thing I wanted to do was make a scene.

"We both fell asleep and I woke up to his left hand on my chest. He was rubbing my chest and my breasts. I smacked his hand away and tried to reassure my sister that everything would be okay."

Sandhu who denied wrongdoing claimed he had wanted to move seats as he had two children sat next to him and he accused the women of 'touching each other inappropriately.'

He added: 'When she asked me a few questions I asked her if she was a lesbian because they had been touching each other inappropriately. I didn't touch either of them. If they want to set me up and ruin my life then they can - they made it all up."

But District Judge Khalid Qureshi, told Sandhu: "The evidence that the two sisters were intimately touching each other is both tasteless and objectionable and I do not believe any of the evidence that you gave.

''The women's evidence is completely plausible and I watched the demeanour and they were visibly upset and shaken about what happened."