Two US tourists convicted of an air-rage offence on a transatlantic Aer Lingus flight last week had their jail terms quashed at Ennis Circuit Court yesterday.
However, Stephen (39) and Brian Jones (38) were taken into custody from the court after a deportation order was served on them. The two brothers from New York are to be flown home today, escorted by four gardai at Aer Lingus insistence. It will cost the State £4,056.
The brothers received jail terms and fines last week after pleading guilty to engaging in threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour on a Newark to Shannon flight.
Asked yesterday what effect the four-month sentence would have, Stephen Jones (39), a carpenter and waiter, said he would lose custody of his six-year-old son after a three-year battle for custody.
Brian Jones (38) said serving the sentence would lose him his job, his fiancee and his home and it have consequences for the daily care he gives his mother.
Judge Sean O'Leary said that as Brian Jones had no previous convictions the £500 fine was more than adequate. He said Stephen Jones had previous drink-related convictions. He reduced his four-month sentence to two months suspended for a year and affirmed the £700 fine.
He said their behaviour had been outrageous and intolerable.
