Opportunistic is how chief magistrate Usaia Ratuvili described a former senior executive of a prominent publicly listed Fijian company while sentencing him to 14 months imprisonment, suspended for two years, for indecent assault.
The Suva Magistrates Court was told that the victim, a flight attendant, was groped by the accused during a flight.
The accused, whose name has been suppressed, had grabbed her posterior.
He was charged with one count of indecent assault and convicted on October 1 this year.
Mr Ratuvili said the case had cost the man his previously held high corporate positions, he had suffered mentally and was on medication for high blood pressure as a result of the case.
He also said the pandemic had also caused him to lose income as a consultant for small businesses.
However, the only mitigating factors he found were the man’s previous good character and that he was a first offender.
Mr Ratuvili said a custodial sentence was befitting, considering the opportunistic nature in which the man committed the offence.
He was sentenced to 14 months imprisonment suspended for two years.
The man has another case to answer of a similar nature, which will be called on January 28.
