Man spared jailed after paying cabin crew member €2,500 over sexual assault on flight

A construction company director who sexually assaulted a cabin crew member on a flight to Dublin has been spared jail after paying €2,500 in compensation to the woman.

Gardaí on Tuesday removed Arturs Nagornijs (41) from a plane just after it landed at Dublin Airport. The Latvian businessman, who has no address in Ireland, was arrested and charged with sexual assault, intoxication and behaviour likely to cause offence or annoyance.

He was held in custody and pleaded guilty when he appeared before Judge Treasa Kelly at Dublin District Court. The court heard he put his hand up an 18-year-old flight attendant’s skirt after causing trouble during the flight.

He was granted bail but had his passport seized. Judge Kelly had ordered him to bring €2,500 for the victim.

Nagornijs on Friday handed the money over to investigating Garda Jennifer Lynch, who said the victim was willing to accept it.

Judge Kelly had described it as a despicable and horrendous incident and noted that the young woman had only started the job six weeks ago. She took into account the accused’s early guilty plea, compliance with bail terms, apology and provision of compensation.

Clean record

Defence solicitor Eoin Lysaght asked the court to leave his client with a clean record, but the judge refused and recorded a criminal conviction. However, she made no further order and did not impose any other penalty.

The court heard Nagornijs had been travelling from Nice, France to Riga, Latvia London Stansted and Dublin. The cabin crew repeatedly interacted with Nagornijs over his drunken behaviour during the flight from Stansted.

Flight attendants noticed him acting “erratically” and “lying across an elderly woman’s lap”. He was asked to sit up and put his belt on and complied, but “as soon as they went away” he took it off again. He locked himself in a toilet as other passengers disembarked and then sat on the back row, where he urinated on himself and the seats.

The flight attendant felt his hand go up her skirt between her thighs during the sexual assault. Garda Lynch said the woman jumped in shock and ran to the captain, shouting, “I can’t do this”. Air traffic control was alerted, and gardaí removed Nagornijs from the aircraft.