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Blue singer Lee Ryan found guilty of racially aggravated assault of Black flight attendant-Sabrina Barr-Entertainment – Metro
The musician told the court: ‘I’m not racist’.
The musician was pictured in court on Thursday (Picture: PA)
Blue singer Lee Ryan has been found guilty of the racially aggravated assault of a Black flight attendant.
Ealing Magistrates’ Court heard that the 39-year-old told the female cabin crew member ‘I want your chocolate children’ and asked her to kiss him while he was drunk on a British Airways flight from Glasgow to London on July 31 last year.
In court, Ryan stated: ‘I’m not racist’, saying that it was ‘drunk banter’ on the flight and there was no malice or intention to upset anyone’.
In August last year, it was reported that the musician had been arrested following ‘disruptive behaviour’ on the flight when he was allegedly not served alcohol.
At the time, a Met Police spokesperson told Metro.co.uk: ‘At around 1640hrs on Sunday, 31 July, officers met a flight that had arrived at London City Airport from Glasgow.
‘A 39-year-old man was arrested for a public order offence. He was taken into custody at an East London police station and was released under investigation the following day.’
Ryan was seen arriving at court, carrying an umbrella as he walked outside in the rain (Picture: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire)
When Ryan appeared in court on Thursday, he testified that he was drunk when he referred to a Black flight attendant as ‘chocolate’ before he was arrested following the incident.
The former Celebrity Big Brother contestant was previously charged with abusing and assaulting a member of the British Airways flight crew and assaulting a police officer.
According to The Sun, he previously denied assault and behaving in an abusive manner but pleaded guilty to being drunk on the plane.
He was also charged with racially or religiously aggravated intentional harassment.
He was found guilty in court of being drunk on an aircraft, assaulting a police officer by biting him, racially aggravated common assault by beating and behaving in an abusive way towards the cabin crew member.
The singer reportedly said in court that after his flight was delayed, he drank a whole bottle of port and ate cheese in the BA lounge (Picture: Jonathan Brady/PA)
The flight attendant, who has not been named, took to the stand in court, recalling the incident as she stated: ‘He was making comments about my complexion, “You’re my chocolate darling, my chocolate cookie”, and “I’m going to have your chocolate children”.’
She continued: ‘It felt like he was saying I was beautiful for a Black person because of the way he was describing my colour.’
The witness claimed that Ryan said to her: ‘Before I get off this plane I need a kiss from you,’ as he approached her from behind.
She claimed that he was ‘towering over’ her as though he was ‘leaning in to gibve me a kiss’, and while she told him to ‘stay away’, he allegedly grabbed her by her wrists.
Ryan (right) is one of the four members of Blue, along with (left to right) Antony Costa, Duncan James and Simon Webbe (Picture: Ian West/PA Wire)
The flight attendant, who received help from intervening passengers, said that she felt ‘intimidated’ and ’embarrassed’, as though she wasn’t able to do her ‘duty properly’.
‘To get comments about my colour whether intentional or not, it was just unacceptable and so derogatory,’ she said. ‘I just felt like it wasn’t fair and I shouldn’t have to put up with it. I don’t go to work to be assaulted or harassed.’
When Ryan took to the stand, he became tearful and referred to his Blue bandmate Simon Webbe as he said: ‘I’m sorry. My band member is Black, I’m not racist, I’ve had Black girlfriends, mixed-race girlfriends. It was banter, just drunk banter I suppose, there was no malice or intention to upset anyone.’
He continued: ‘I didn’t mean to cause any distress to anyone or be racist, it was just a poor choice of words I suppose.’
The singer later said: ‘I am sorry that I touched her, but that’s all I did, touch her lightly, by her admission,’ while also insisting that there was ‘no malice’ in his comments, when he called the woman a ‘chocolate chip cookie’.
He became tearful in court (Picture: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire)
Following the news of his arrest, Ryan released a statement on social media in which he opened up about his ‘struggles with alcohol’, saying that he will ‘often say or do silly things as a result of that, which in turn has caused problems for myself and those around me’.
‘For that I want to apologise to everyone I have upset or offended,’ he said, before going into how he ‘acted inappropriately on a flight to London’.
‘I want to say sorry to the airline staff, everyone on the flight, as well as my band mates, my family and our fans,’ he said..
‘The time has come for me to take ownership of the root cause of these problems and for that reason, I am reducing my schedule for the time being to seek professional help and spend time with my family.’
Ryan said that he was aware of how his behaviour ‘affects others’, stating: ‘By starting this journey of working on my mental health I hope to emerge a better person for it.’
He also thanked those who had sent him messages of support and apologised to ‘everyone that [he had] let down’.
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