An Indian restaurateur has avoided jail despite being found guilty of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl on a flight from Melbourne to Dubai.
Ronan Hookens, 66, who runs a restaurant in Melbourne’s northeast, last month pleaded not guilty to committing an act of indecency against a child under 16, but was convicted in Melbourne Magistrates Court.
He was sentenced on Friday to a two-year community corrections order, required to pay $2,331 for counselling for his traumatised victim, and placed on the sex offender register for eight years.
The court heard the young girl was asleep while seated next to Hookens on an Emirates flight in 2023 when she woke up to him stroking her leg. He then touched her groin area and put his fingers inside the band of her underwear, The Age reported.
A summary read to the court by Magistrate Stephen Ballek stated that the girl “grabbed your hand and threw it back towards you and told you to f— off and not touch her like that”.
After landing in Dubai the girl told her mother, who was sleeping when the assault took place, and the incident was referred to the Australian Federal Police by Victoria Police.
The court also heard that after the assault the victim posted a photo of herself on the plane next to Hookens on social media captioned “I’m sitting next to this creepy man”.
The victim, who is now 16 and cannot be identified due to her age, suffers from depression, suicidal ideations, self-harm and panic attacks for the past two years due to the assault, the court heard.
“I have lost my sense of feeling safe with anything I do. It feels like I’m not in control of my life any more. I live in constant fear, anxious, and I struggle every day with the trauma of what happened,” she told the sentencing hearing.
Hookens maintained his innocence and his barrister argued the girl’s account was implausible as Hookens was surrounded by nine family members in economy class at the time, including his wife.
But the magistrate found her to be a “witness of truth” and stated “she has been honest at all times and has not fabricated, lied or misled in her description of what happened. I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the events happened”.
Header image: Ronan Hookens (supplied).
