A farmer flying out on a holiday to Spain grabbed a woman passenger's breasts twice in a drunken air rage incident, a court heard yesterday.
Thomas Barrett (31), Cordal, Castleisland, Co Kerry, pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the woman and violent behaviour on the flight to Las Palmas last May.
Sgt Declan Downey told Dublin District Court that the air crew asked had asked Barrett a number of times not to smoke and later found the smoke detectors in the toilets had been blocked.
Later he twice grabbed the breasts of a woman he was sitting behind. When she told him to stop, he threatened her.
Shortly before the plane landed he started to make his way towards the cockpit. With the help of three passengers the crew managed to hold him down and restrain his hands with plastic ties.
He was handed over to the authorities at Las Palmas where he spent two days in custody and was then released without charge.
Mr Darragh Robinson, defending solicitor, said when the man arrived home he spent some time in a psychiatric hospital.
Sentencing was adjourned for two weeks.