Drunken hooligan convicted of ramming flight attendant with shopping cart and sexually assaulting young mother on Emirates flight to London

A drunken hooligan has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a young mother on a seven-hour Emirates flight from Dubai to London Heathrow after he rammed a flight attendant with a shopping trolley and attacked two other flight attendants.

Tarlok Singh, 54, began his rampage after he shouted at other passengers and refused to sit down despite repeated warnings from a cabin attendant.

Prosecutor Emily Timcke told Ealing District Court how Singh then tried to get to the back of the plane but was stopped by a flight attendant who was about to serve food to the passengers from a trolley.

Singh stabbed the crew member twice in the back as he passed and then kicked the cabin manager in the back of the legs as he tried to get Singh to sit down again.

He then collided with the trolley into another crew member, trapping her foot under the trolley, causing pain and redness before flight crew intervened and restrained him with cable ties for the remainder of the flight to London.

Singh then allegedly turned his attention to a young mother who was travelling alone with her baby for the first time. He leaned over the victim and her baby and first attempted to pull a pacifier from the child’s mouth before rubbing the mother’s breasts twice.

“I saw him pacing. He was screaming and yelling and running, and I saw a few people following him,” the victim told the court. “He seemed really drunk and couldn’t stand still. He had no balance, he couldn’t stand up straight.”

“I didn’t want him to hit me – I didn’t know how he would react if I asked him to stop,” the victim continued during her emotional testimony. “I was really distressed and very scared and really traumatized.”

Singh’s lawyer pressed the victim to say whether she believed Singh’s assault was sexual in nature. He told the court that Singh was not a sex offender but “a stupid man who drank too much.”

Singh admitted three counts of assault, disobeying lawful instructions of a pilot and obstructing the duties of a crew member during the January 19 flight. He denied the charge of sexual assault, but judges found him guilty in his absence because Singh did not appear in court for the hearing.

When the court contacted him, Singh claimed he was in bed suffering from back pain he had developed while working in a lighthouse two decades ago. An arrest warrant was issued against him and the verdict will be announced at a later date.

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