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Tribune Web Desk
Chandigarh, April 6
A UK court has jailed an Irish national human rights lawyer for six months for spitting at a flight attendant during a foul-mouthed racist tirade after she was refused more wine.
50-year-old Simone Burns was served three bottles of wine but declared ““I am working for all your people. The f*****g Rohingyas, the f*****g people of all Asia, for you, an international criminal lawyer. Don’t get any money for it. But you can’t even give me a f*****g glass of wine, is that correct? when she was denied more on an Air India flight from Mumbai to London in November.
She also called staff “Indian money-grabbing c***s” and smoked in the lavatories.
Judge Nicholas Wood, sentencing at Isleworth Crown Court, told Burns: “The experience of a drunk and irrational person in the confines of an aircraft is frightening, not least on a long-haul flight and poses a potential risk to safety,” reported The Guardian.
The judge said: “Such offences are often committed by people of impeccable character. Although the aircraft was not at risk by Burns’s behaviour, the judge said, “For the luckless and unfortunate passengers and crew there is no escape at 30,000ft.”
He added: “Spitting straight into a crew member’s face at close range is a particularly insulting and upsetting act.”
The sentences are to be served concurrently after she previously pleaded guilty to the charges.
Burns was also ordered to pay £300 compensation to the crew member who was assaulted.
The nine-hour flight took off at 4.10am as Burns sat in business class with 17 other passengers. After breakfast was served Burns was asking for alcohol and being “very obnoxious”, the court said.
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