New Jersey man found guilty of sexually abusing sleeping woman on United flight who woke up with his hands in her underwear

Shocking: Bawer Aksal, 48, was found guilty of molesting a neighbouring plane passenger as he traveled from Phoenix to Newark

A northern New Jersey man has been convicted of sexually abusing a sleeping woman on a cross-country flight last year.
Jurors returned the verdict against 49-year-old Bawer Aksal (BAO'-uhr OCK'-sahl) today, their second day of deliberations.
The Turkish-born American citizen was convicted of sexual abuse and abusive sexual contact.
The woman testified under an alias that she awoke on the Phoenix-to-Newark flight last August to find Aksal with one hand inside her blouse and the other inside her underwear.
Aksal didn't testify but told authorities the woman made unwanted sexual advances toward him and forced his hands to touch her.
On Thursday, jurors had asked to review testimony by a man who sat next to Aksal on the flight and by an FBI agent who interviewed the defendant.
The woman testified on Monday at the trial, saying: 'I was completely confused about what the hell was going on.'

She added: 'It was the pain – that's what woke me up'.
When she was awake, the incident continued as he 'seductively' whispered 'kiss me'.
'I couldn't believe this was happening,' she said in court, according to NJ.com.
The lead flight attendant corroborated the accuser's rattled composure following the alleged incident during her testimony on Tuesday.
The flight attendant said the woman was 'visibly shaken'.

Though Aksal has not taken the stand, he told a different version of events to the officers who responded to the scene.
Two FBI agents who took Aksal's statement at the airport said that he claimed the woman was 'coming onto him' by saying he was handsome and smelled good.
NJ.com reports that Aksal told the officers that she was the one to make the first physical move, by placing his hands on her genitals.

The alleged attack took place on a United Airlines flight between Phoenix and Newark

Two other passengers testified on Tuesday, one saying that Aksal glared at her through the crack between two seats and another told how his chair was kicked so hard that it disturbed his sleep.
Police arrested him when the plane landed and charged with sexual abuse. If convicted he could be facing life imprisonment.
In addition to handing over all of his travel documents, Aksal was made to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet during the time he spent waiting for his bail, and he had to adhere to a 24/7 lockdown in his North Bergen home, NJ.com reported.
He has been ordered to abstain from contact with the alleged victim or anyone else involved in the case.
Aksal, an ethnic Kurd, fled Turkey years ago and was denied bail at his first court appearance because he was deemed to be a flight risk.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Harris, argued that as a Turkish-born U.S. citizen with few stateside assets, at least two passports and facing up to life in prison on the sex abuse charge, he was a flight risk with a strong motive to flee to Turkey.
Defense attorney Robert DeGroot said Aksal denied abusing the woman and disputed claims in the criminal complaint that he had admitted to authorities that he had touched the woman but had told them it was consensual.
DeGroot argued that the scenario, on a crowded plane, was highly unlikely.
'If I was on a plane and someone reached into my trousers, I would wake up and complain vociferously,' DeGroot argued to U.S.
Magistrate Judge Madeline Cox Arleo during a bail hearing in Newark federal court.
Harris countered that the woman, whom prosecutors have not named because of the nature of the charges, did wake up and protest, slamming down the arm rest between her and Aksal and alerting the flight crew.
Harris said the woman, who dozed off wearing headphones and with a jacket draped across her lap, awoke to find her clothing ripped, her bra pulled down to her waist and Aksal breathing heavily and whispering for her to kiss him.
'This was a crime of violence,' Harris told the judge. 'An egregious act in a commercial airliner with over 100 potential witnesses.'

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