Police officer heads to prison for air rage assault
Sep. 2, 2004. 01:00 AM
Sex assault nets Toronto police officer jail sentence
JENNIFER MORRISON
TORSTAR NEWS SERVICE
A Toronto police officer who sexually assaulted a flight attendant and threatened to kill a planeload of passengers two years ago was stripped of his duties and suspended without pay yesterday.
Constable Amarjit Singh Grewal, a 15-year officer, will serve four months in jail. And he's likely to lose his job when he emerges from behind bars.
"We've taken a position that we have no place for them once they've been to (jail)," Staff Inspector George Cowley of the professional standards branch said of officers convicted of crimes. "I'm not aware of any police officer in Toronto who has gone to jail and subsequently kept their job." Grewal, 34, also faces five Police Act charges that will be dealt with after his jail time.
Ontario Court Justice Robert Weseloh handed him a four-month term for the sexual assault, three months for threatening death and one day for an assault on another attendant. The sentences are to be served concurrently.
Weseloh said Grewal's intoxication was no excuse for how he behaved Aug. 27, 2002, on WestJet flight 659 from Edmonton to Hamilton.
In reviewing the facts, Weseloh said Grewal positioned his right hand like a gun and shouted, "You have no idea what I can do to all of these people on the plane. I could ... blow them away."
Grewal pushed the flight attendant into a window seat, pressed against her, stroked her face and told her he wanted to jump on her and have sex. When she said no, he replied, "If I want to have sex with you, I'll have sex with you." He touched her breast and put his hand down her pants. Weseloh praised the woman's "phenomenal courage" in distracting him from other passengers, for which "she should receive a medal."
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