An airline passenger convicted of pinching a check

An airline passenger convicted of pinching a check-in supervisor’s bottom at Heathrow airport narrowly escaped jail today (Thurs) after his mother pleaded for leniency.

Businessman Austin McDonagh, 39, grabbed the 28-year-old’s backside as she dealt with his ticket query, the Old Bailey heard.

McDonagh, who had been drinking heavily at the airport bar, denied touching the woman but was convicted by the jury.

Judge Paul Focke, QC, had warned McDonagh he faced possible jail for the assault.

But today (Thurs) he told McDonagh he was taking ‘what may well be a too lenient course’ by sentencing him to two years community rehabilitation.

The judge said: ‘Ladies working as airline ground crew staff need and deserve protection from sexual overtures and people like you must be deterred from embarking upon such activities.

‘I bear in mind the incident only lasted a second or two and that you were at the time intoxicated with drink.

‘But it was a degrading and unsettling experience for that young lady.

Your assault upon her was deliberate and opportunistic.

‘

McDonagh refused to comment on the sentence as he walked free.

But his mother, Mary McDonagh was outraged that her son had ended up in the dock of the Old Bailey’s most secure court for pinching a woman’s bottom.

‘It’s ludicrous he was facing jail for this.

It’s stupid,’ Mrs McDonagh said after the hearing.

She had earlier told the court she was sure her son would not repeat the incident if he were spared imprisonment.

‘He is a kind and generous person.

He helps me around the house.

Everybody thinks highly of him,’ she said.

McDonagh had been due to fly to his Dublin home town when he squeezed the woman’s bottom as she checked him onto his flight.

The Irishman approached the British Midland desk at Terminal One after drinking whiskey and and gin at the airport bar.

The pretty brunette told the court McDonagh stank of alcohol when she first spoke to him.

They left the desk together to change his ticket and McDonagh followed closely behind as she walked across the concourse.

‘I turned away from the desk with McDonagh directly behind me,’ the supervisor said.

‘We turned to walk away and Mr McDonagh grabbed by bottom – my left buttock.

‘It was a hard grab.

Not a touch a grab,’ she stressed.

‘I turned round and told him to remove his hand.

‘He put both hands up in the air and said: ‘I didn’t do it.

‘

‘There was nobody else who possibly could have done it,’ she added.

Mr Lewis said McDonagh had been at the Aer Lingus desk earlier and staff there believed he was drunk when he repeatedly returned to the desk asking the time.

He told one member of staff how beautiful she was and that she should be on television.

Prosecution barrister Mr Peter Lewis admitted: ‘The prosecution do not say it is the most indecent assault in the world.

There are much worse indecent assaults than that.

But Mr Lewis added: ‘If you quite deliberately with no invitation whatsoever squeeze the left buttock of the woman in front of you then that is indecent assault.

‘It is an indecent assault and he should not have done it.

‘

Police could have let McDonagh off with a caution but the victim was ‘somewhat displeased’ over the incident and insisted on pressing charges.

McDonagh spent a night in custody to sober up after his arrest.

His barrister John Lucas said the convicted groper had been depressed about his father’s illness at the time of the incident.

McDonagh, who lives with his mother of Frithville Gardens, Shepherds Bush, had denied indecent assault.

ends

mmmm