A federal judge sentenced a California man Thursday to one year of probation after prosecutors said he touched two women on a redeye flight from Los Angeles to Boston, court records show.

Prosecutors said Jairaj Singh Dhillon, 43, of Modesto, Calif., touched a woman on her thigh about 30 minutes into a May 2022 flight as she was tending to her infant child next to her in the window seat. He then “reached his hand deeper into her groin area,” court documents said.

“When the first victim swatted his hand away and called for help, the female passenger across the aisle — who was sitting next to the first victim’s husband — stood up in the aisle to allow the first victim’s husband out, only to be groped in the groin and buttocks by Dhillon,” federal prosecutors in Boston wrote in court documents.

But Dhillon’s public defender said his offenses were a “complete aberration in a life otherwise defined by respect and concerns for others.” Dhillon built a life in the United States over 22 years after coming from India as a religious asylee, the public defender said.

Dhillon’s lawyer said the “unusual” and “unlikely to recur” circumstances of the case pointed to the need for a lesser sentence.

Lawyers said Dhillon took sleeping medication before getting on the flight.

“Dhillon was observed to have been ‘act[ing] odd,’ and he was described by one of the victim’s husbands as ‘seem[ing] off’ and ‘glazed and confused.’ One of the victims described Mr. Dhillon as ‘not all there,’” the public defender wrote in a sentencing document. “… He did not remember inappropriately touching either victim and, as he told law enforcement, such conduct would be wrong and unacceptable.”

Prosecutors said Dhillon “violated” the female victims by groping them. He pled guilty to a two-count misdemeanor in March charging him with assault onboard an aircraft.

“Worse, because of the circumstances, these female victims were forced to remain in a confined space with their assailant for hours until their plane landed in Boston,” prosecutors wrote in court documents. “Regardless of any drugs the defendant may have taken, there is no diminishing what happened to the female victims who were subjected to Dhillon’s physical assault.”

But prosecutors acknowledge the incident was “aberrant” in the broader context of Dhillon’s life.

“The government submits that Dhillon’s lack of criminal history and prompt acceptance of responsibility suggest that a sentence of probation with a period of home confinement is sufficient to meet the goals of sentencing,” they said.