Lee Ryan, a member of the boyband Blue, physically manhandled a black flight attendant after drunkenly telling her: ‘I want your chocolate children.’
He was seen ‘slurring his words and staggering around’ the cabin after drinking a whole bottle of port before the flight on July 31 last year.
To the horror of other passengers, he then grabbed Ms Gordon’s wrists and told her: “Before I get off this plane I need to kiss you.”Witnesses onboard the plane managed to intervene, but Ryan then began “snarling” and attacking police when they arrived to arrest him. He bit one officer in the process.
Ryan, who had denied the charge, said his behaviour on the plane was ‘playful’.
But magistrates found the ‘racially aggravated element was proved’ and told Ryan: ‘We believe the language was demeaning and derogatory. We cannot accept the choice of the wording was simple banter.
‘Ms Gordon earlier told the court that Ryan initially called her “beautiful” and put his sunglasses on her face.
She said: ‘He was making comments about my complexion, you’re my chocolate darling, my chocolate cookie, and I’m going to have your chocolate children.
She went on: ‘It felt like he was saying I was beautiful for a black person because of the way he was describing my colour.’
Ms Gordon said Ryan later approached her from behind, saying: ‘Before I get off this plane I need a kiss from you.’
Ms Gordon told the court: “He said to me ‘I want your chocolate children’.”
‘To get comments about my colour whether intentional or not, it was just unacceptable and so derogatory.’
Ryan, who was tearful in the dock before giving evidence, said he drank a whole bottle of port and ate cheese in the BA lounge after the flight was delayed.
‘It was banter, just drunk banter I suppose, there was no malice or intention to upset anyone.’
‘Ryan denied the use of the word “chocolate” was racist.’
He added: ‘I am sorry that I touched her, but that’s all I did, touch her lightly, by her admission.
In an interview with police officers, read to the court, Ryan said: ‘I wish I could ring her up and apologise and offer her some Blue tickets for the next tour.’
Luke Bowyer, prosecuting, said Ryan was snarling at police officers before ‘sobbing uncontrollably’.
He also told the court: ‘You’ve got a celebrity who believes he is entitled to harass a woman.
Ryan, who said he lives in Spain, was granted unconditional bail and sentencing has been adjourned until February 24.
After the hearing, members of the press saw the pop star running into a nearby primary school to avoid photographers.
