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An Italian school teacher who admitted sexually assaulting a Ryanair flight attendant as a plane was about to land has dodged jail.
Sebastian Russo, 39, was travelling on the flight from Krakow in Poland to Edinburgh when he touched the cabin crew member on the behind while she was attending to another passenger.
Russo, who gave an address in Hyndland, in Glasgow’s west end, is an Italian national and is currently employed as a science teacher at a high school in the Czech Republic. Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told the teacher was flying into Scotland to spend the Christmas holidays with his mother on December 21 last year.
Russo pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a member of Ryanair cabin crew by placing his hand on her buttocks without consent on board an aircraft from Krakow, Poland, to Edinburgh Airport when he appeared at the capital court last month. Solicitor Anna Mackay said her client had been drinking alcohol on board the flight and he had “inexplicably” sexually assaulted the female steward by touching her bottom.
Ms Mackay added Russo was “absolutely mortified” at appearing in court on the sex charge and that he and his partner were expecting their first child together. He returned to the dock for sentencing on Monday (November 25) where Sheriff John Cook fined him £940 and placed him on the sex offenders register for five years.
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Sheriff Cook said: “There are a number of aggravations to this charge; firstly it was an assault in the course of the victim’s employment and secondly the locus was on board an aircraft.
“The contact in this case was fleeting and albeit the complainer was stressed she was able to carry on with her duties in spite of that.”
The court previously heard Russo was on board the flight as it prepared to land in Edinburgh. He placed his hand on her buttocks of the Ryanair employee while she was speaking to a passenger on December 21 last year. The assault was described as “a firm touch but not a grab” and Russo was arrested by police officers after the aircraft had landed at Edinburgh Airport.
The Crown accepted not guilty pleas to charges of Russo behaving in an abusive, disorderly and insulting manner towards cabin crew by shouting, swearing, screaming, failing to obey instructions and acting in an aggressive manner, and to being drunk on board the same flight.
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