Robert Jan Van Den Bergh, 37, was returning home to London when he started touching the economics degree student after she took two sleeping pills, Isleworth Crown Court was told.
Van Den Bergh, of Forest Road, Hackney has pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual assault on the United Airlines Heathrow-bound flight between December 31, 2019 and January 1, 2020.
His wife was returning on a separate pre-booked flight.
“I realised two hours in it was probably on purpose what he was doing and put an airline pillow between us,” the woman told the jury.
“The pressure would increase over time and move around up to where my underwear was. It would stop for a few seconds and start again.”
She was wearing a skirt and had a blanket over her. “It was under the blanket. It was the man sitting next to me.
“It started in the middle of my thigh, but moved around for the one and a half to two hours it was. I was too scared to look and sort of trapped in the seat and not sure what to do.”
Prosecutor Sophia Kerridge told the jury the flight took off from Los Angeles a few hours before midnight on New Year’s Eve and the complainant was in the window seat.
“On her left was this defendant, who was flying back from his honeymoon and next to him was another woman in the isle seat.
“At the beginning of the flight he engaged in small talk with the complainant and observed her taking a couple of sleeping pills and remarked that could lead to unconsciousness.
“She woke up four to five hours before the flight was due to land and she noticed something lightly touching her thigh.
“She pretended to be asleep, but saw it as the defendant stroking her and the stroking became stronger and more deliberate.
“She put a pillow between the seats in the hope it would stop things.
“He put his hand under the pillow and continued touching her left thigh and continued up towards her buttock.
“She asked to get up and spoke to the cabin crew and asked to be moved because she was uncomfortable sitting next to the defendant as he was touching her.”
A member of cabin crew told the jury the young woman was offered a middle row seat in economy and asked: “Don’t you have something in another class?”
She refused to pay the $300 upgrade fee and was seated elsewhere in economy.
Van Den Bergh complains two armed officers boarded the plane and escorted him off in front of all the other passengers and held him on the airbridge as they disembarked past him.
When questioned by police he insisted he only slept and watched movies during the flight.
Trial continues……………
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