It was September last year when 24-year-old Kelly was on a Qatar Airways flight from Doha to London Gatwick after a trip to Africa.

Tucked underneath a blanket and with her headphones firmly on, she quickly fell asleep after a strenuous day of travel. The quiet murmuring of voices from the film playing on her screen helped her to drift off on a packed overnight flight.

But two hours before landing, Kelly – whose name has been changed for this article – was woken by the man sitting next to her, sexually assaulting her.

The man in his 60s has now been jailed but Kelly is finding it difficult to go on with her day-to-day life and is locked in a battle for compensation.

Man jailed for sexually assaulting woman on flight
Speaking about the ordeal for the first time, she tells the BBC the man had pulled a second blanket over both of them before the attack.

“His hands were down my trousers and I said to him, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘Stop’. He said, ‘No, please’. And I had to force his hand out of my trousers and that just made me get up straight away. I left my phone, I left my bag, I left my passport, I left everything. I left my shoes and ran into the toilet, left the door open [and] told the flight attendant,” she says.

Kelly was initially moved to a cabin crew seat before being moved elsewhere in the cabin until landing.

“I had to endure the rest of the plane journey, which was awful,” Kelly remembers. “I was so anxious… anyone that walked by I would instantly panic because I thought it would be him.”

Momade Jussab, 66, was arrested as soon as the flight arrived into Gatwick. He was subsequently charged with one count of sexual assault by penetration and two counts of sexual assault, and was found guilty after a trial in March. He is now serving a six-and-a-half year prison sentence.

Although Kelly is pleased he has been convicted, she said the impact of the assault on her has been severe.

“I haven’t been out in almost a year – to events or summer parties with my friends. I can’t do that. I’m too scared. I don’t want to be touched or looked at. So it’s never leaving me. It’s literally there every single day before I sleep, I’m thinking about what happened.”