26 January 2024 , 07:39
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An abusive drunk who spent two hours verbally attacking fellow passengers and crew on a flight from Morocco to Manchester has been jailed.
Benjamin Gallon started drinking before his Ryanair flight on December 1 last year, and was told he would only be allowed to board if he stopped drinking booze. But Gallon continued, secretly swigging vodka from a plastic bottle until he became volatile and aggressive.
Prosecutor Tom Challinor said there had been tensions in the airport even before he boarded the aircraft. His female companion was pulled up for smoking inside the airport before boarding. Gallon was said to have smelt strongly of booze and the alcohol he purchased at duty free was confiscated.
At the start of the issues, he was singing loudly on the plane, leading irked passengers to ask him to stop, to which he replied: "F*** the police." He then asked a woman of her male friend: "He's gay, isn't he?" Mr Challinor said. added: "The defendant began to abuse the complainant's sexuality and gender. He stated 'there are only two genders', before claiming that the LGBTQ+ movement 'sexualised children'."
He became increasingly aggressive towards the man, and said: "It's all your fault, you f*****." "The likes of you would rape my kids," he added. After reporting Gallon to the cabin crew, the man and woman were moved. When an attended confronted him, Gallon said: "You're a Jamaican, you like n***es." The abuse continued, despite other passengers telling him to stay quiet. Gallon also tried to go into the storage area of the plane to retrieve his friend's cigarettes, staff said.
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Towards the end of the four-hour flight, Gallon was asked to move to the front of the plane to make it easier for the police to get him off the flight. He refused. "Come on mate, just move so we can leave," a passenger said. Gallon replied: "Shut the f*** up or I'll headbutt you." He eventually moved, before telling the man he earlier insulted: "It's your fault I'm getting arrested, you p***."
Gallon was removed by police once the flight had landed in Manchester Airport. He said he was 'disgusted' with himself when later confronted with mobile phone footage. He has 14 previous convictions for 22 offences - including drunk and disorderly, violence and breach of court orders.
Mitigating, Stuart Neale read out a letter from Gallon. It read: "I have nothing but remorse. There is no place in our society for this behaviour and it's filled me with the utmost shame. Nobody has the right to make anybody feel the way I made those good folk feel that day. I am disgusted with myself - there is no excuse for behaviour of this sort."
He apologised 'deeply' to Ryanair staff for his 'drunken babble'. Mr Neale said Gallon had suffered a spinal injury. He was on strong painkillers, but they didn't work, so he turned to heroin. He said his client treated the holiday as a 'detox', but struggled to sleep. He drank to much at the airport in Morocco, the court heard.
Describing his behaviour as "disgraceful, volatile and completely unacceptable", Recorder Katie Jones jailed Gallon, of Haslam Close, Bradford, for four months. He previously pleaded guilty to entering an aircraft when drunk; and using racially abusive behaviour. "This was a sustained period of dreadful behaviour," she told him.