Turkish bus assistant given six-year prison sentence for sexual assault against passenger

KOCAELİ

A bus assistant who reportedly masturbated on a female passenger while she was sleeping on an intercity vehicle en route to Istanbul on May 25 has been sentenced to six years and three months in prison for sexual assault in the northwestern province of Kocaeli. The assistant, identified as Gökhan G., 27, defended himself by saying that his semen fell on the passenger, identified as C.D.D., 20, from a cup he had masturbated into earlier. 

“First of all, I regret the situation that I put the passenger in and I feel remorse,” Gökhan G. told the court, as he added that he hadn’t received any complaints about annoying a client in the previous places that he had worked before becoming an assistant with the Metro bus company. 

“I worked as a waiter for 12 years before starting to work in Metro. I never received a complaint about bothering a female client. There were male and female passengers around the victim. I evaluate this incident that happened to me as stupidity and bad luck. I want the court to take the impossibility of masturbating on a passenger in a bus that was full [of people] into consideration,” he also said. 

Gökhan G. had initially been detained following the incident but was released after he insisted that what spilled on the victim was water. An investigation was launched against him by the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in Kocaeli’s Gebze district for acting immodestly and sexual assault. He was later arrested.

Gökhan G. told the court that he didn’t masturbate while thinking about the passenger, thus claiming that his actions weren’t against her. 

“I woke up when the bus got on a ship in Yalova. I saw a woman dressed in very revealing clothes on the ship. I became aroused and checked the bathrooms on the ship, but they were full. I went back to the bus, took a cup and masturbated into it,” Gökhan G. said, noting that his semen fell on the passenger while he was collecting rubbish in the bus. 

“While I was collecting rubbish, I went to the area where she was sleeping. I had the cup filled with semen, a glass of water and other rubbish in my hand. When I reached to get the rubbish in front of her, the things in my hand fell. She woke up and starting shouting. I told her that what was spilled on her was water. Then we turned on the lights of the bus and the passenger showed the stains on her seat, saying that I masturbated on her,” he said. The court acquitted Gökhan G. on charges of acting immodestly but sentenced him to seven years and six months in prison, which was later reduced to six years and three months. 

“I have a sister and female relatives. I don’t approve of such an event. There were times when the bus would be empty during the time period that I’ve worked as an assistant. If I had bad intentions, I would do it by slipping drugs in her drink,” Gökhan G. told the court.

Meanwhile, the lawyer for Metro, Burçin Başak, said that the company was satisfied with the jail sentence that the bus assistant received.