Blue’s Lee Ryan avoids jail for drunkenly assaulting Black flight attendant

Blue singer Lee Ryan has avoided a jail term for drunkenly assaulting a Black female flight attendant.

As The Guardian reports, Ryan received a 12-month suspended prison sentence for racially aggravated common assault and behaving in an abusive way towards the cabin crew member.

The incident occurred on a British Airways flight from Glasgow to London in July last year. Ryan was found guilty of racially aggravated assault this January.

As he sentenced Ryan on Thursday (September 28), Judge Nicholas Wood said that the incident “seemed like a lifetime for everybody on that plane”.

He ordered the singer to pay £2,500 in compensation to the British Airways flight attendant Leah Gordon, £750 to her colleague Jade Smith, and £510 in costs. Wood agreed to suspend the jail term for the next 18 months.

After seeing psychological assessments of Ryan, and being made aware that he has high-functioning autistic spectrum disorder, the judge concluded that he didn’t pose an ongoing risk to the public.

In January, Ealing Magistrates’ Court heard how Ryan was “slurring his words and staggering around” after drinking a whole bottle of port before the flight.

After boarding the plane, Ryan was refused alcohol and told to sit down. He then allegedly told a female cabin crew member, “I want your chocolate children”, and called her a “chocolate cookie” before grabbing her wrist.

Giving evidence, the cabin crew member alleged that Ryan “was making comments about my complexion – ‘You’re my chocolate darling, my chocolate cookie, and I’m going to have your chocolate children'”.

The judge said at this week’s sentencing that although some of the language used by Ryan was commonplace in the “entertainment industry”, it had “no place on an aircraft, being directed at cabin crew”.

Ryan had previously told the court that his actions were merely “playful”, and denied use of the word ‘chocolate’ was racist.

Gordon also alleged that the singer had at one point approached her from behind, saying: “Before I get off this plane, I need a kiss from you.” She said Ryan grabbed both her wrists before passengers intervened.

Gordon told the court: “I was intimidated, I felt a bit embarrassed like I wasn’t doing my duty properly. To get comments about my colour whether intentional or not, it was just unacceptable and so derogatory.”

The singer had asked to be upgraded from economy to business class but he was refused because the plane was full.

Gordon’s colleague Smith told the court that Ryan said that he “was being harassed by other passengers, that he was famous and asked did I know who he was”.

She added: “He was angry, saying he was a gold card holder and that he needed to be moved because of this.”

Ryan confessed to drinking alcohol in the BA lounge after the flight was delayed, and claimed to have no memory of the incident.

The post Blue’s Lee Ryan avoids jail for drunkenly assaulting Black flight attendant appeared first on NME.