MIAMI — A French national is facing a federal charge for sexually abusing a woman on a flight from Switzerland to Miami, according to court documents obtained by Local 10 News on Friday.
Authorities said Guillaume Sebastien Roger Mattler, 48, is facing a count of abusive sexual contact in connection with Tuesday’s incident aboard Swiss International Air Lines Flight LX64.
According to a federal criminal complaint, Mattler and the 29-year-old woman, whom he did not know, were “seated next to each other in the first-class cabin” during the flight from Zurich to Miami International Airport.
An FBI agent wrote that two other passengers noticed Mattler touching the woman as she slept. One “took several videos on his cell phone” while his friend became “very concerned and went to find a flight attendant.”
“Witness 2 observed Mattler moving his hand in a ‘submarine’ motion, as if trying to get his hand under the Victim’s clothing and/or between her legs,“ FBI Special Agent Peter Ganzert wrote in the complaint.
Authorities said the flight attendant walked up to Mattler and the woman and saw him “with his hand on (her) crotch, over her jeans, making a scooping or rubbing motion on her vagina.”
According to the complaint, Mattler couldn’t provide any information indicating he knew the woman and the flight crew moved him to coach to separate him from her.
Investigators said when the flight attendant awoke the woman to let her know what happened, she was “shocked” and “began shaking and crying.”
Authorities said when the flight crew brought Mattler back to his seat to get his belongings, he tried to hand the victim a note saying, “You look beautiful when you are sleeping.”
Investigators said they interviewed Mattler and he declined assistance from the French consulate in Miami. They said he first claimed that “nothing happened on the flight,” but then, when told that witnesses had come forward and took video of him, “admitted that he touched the woman sitting next to him and that he did not think it was such a big deal.”
Ganzert wrote that Mattler first claimed he touched “her lower back and upper buttocks,” but after telling him that witnesses saw him touching her genital area, Mattler said “he touched whatever he could reach from across the arm-rest.”
“Mattler advised his initial intention was to get the woman’s phone number and give her his,” the agent wrote. “He then provided the note from his pocket that was written in his business card that read ‘you look cute when you sleep,’ along with the flight information and his seat number.”
Mattler told agents “he had taken photographs with his phone but had deleted them before law enforcement could look at them,” the complaint states.
Records show Mattler made an initial appearance in Miami federal court on Wednesday and is due back for a pre-trial detention hearing on Monday. Prosecutors said they’re seeking to keep him behind bars “based on (a) risk of flight and danger to (the) community.”
As of Friday, records show he was being held in the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami. His booking photo was not available.
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