London: A South African teacher who groped a male flight steward and demanded sex while drunk on a plane has avoided a jail sentence.
Katherine Goldberg, from Ealing, west London, drank about half a litre of whisky on board a Virgin Atlantic flight before apparently grabbing the cabin crew member’s crotch.
In mitigation, Isleworth Crown Court was told that Goldberg, 25, was convinced that the man was her boyfriend as a result of her “alcohol-induced illusion”.
South African-born Goldberg, who pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to sexual assault and being drunk on an aircraft, was on board a night flight from Joburg to Heathrow on August 24 at the time of the episode.
But a judge said he did not want to impose a “lifetime punishment” on the teacher, who had been working at her mother Debbie’s Montessori nursery in London.
She has been suspended since the sex assault and her lawyers claimed she was liable to be struck off if she was jailed or placed on the sex offenders’ register.
The court heard that Goldberg had downed “at least 50 centilitres of whisky” when the incident took place.
Prosecutor James O’Connell said at first her behaviour on the flight was described by witnesses as “very irritating” because she disturbed them while they were trying to rest. She was eventually moved to the plane’s galley, where one member of the cabin crew “took an interest in her care” and tried to calm her down.
“However, it was at this point that the defendant’s antics changed and became rather sexual.
“She sat on his lap and grabbed hold of his genitalia through his trousers,” O’Connell said.
Goldberg also spoke to the man suggestively and kept “making offers to him”, the court heard.
She was heard to tell the air steward: “Let me and you go somewhere. You can touch me anywhere you want, I don’t mind.”
O’Connell said Goldberg was also heard to say the names of two men.
“In her complete alcoholic funk she was confusing him with her current boyfriend, Clayton, and Owen, a previous boyfriend.
“She was somehow imagining this was her boyfriend with whom she was interacting,” O’Connell said.
Goldberg eventually went to sleep for about an hour, but then woke up and continued to be loud and disruptive, the court was told.
Eventually she slept again, and remained asleep until the plane landed at Heathrow and she was met by police.
O’Connell said she was “very co-operative” with the officers who questioned her, and admitted she had no recollection of events on board the plane but was very apologetic. The total amount that Goldberg had drunk was not mentioned in court but it was believed she consumed her own alcohol that she had taken on board, rather than that supplied by cabin crew.
The air steward she sexually assaulted, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was said to have been unaffected by the incident.
In mitigation, Johnathan Goldberg QC, for the defence, who is not related to his client, said the case was a “man bites dog situation”.
He told the court the defendant had shown genuine remorse over the incident and had been abstinent ever since.
He asked the judge not to give her a custodial sentence as it could jeopardise her career.
Passing sentence, Judge Andrew McDowall said it was clear that none of the other passengers had been in any danger during the flight and Goldberg did not have to be restrained at any stage.
“You have now reached that vital stage of acknowledging that you have a problem and also showing a willingness to do something about it,” Judge McDowall said.
“It is quite apparent that you are not a menace to children,” he said.
Goldberg, who has a conviction for drunk driving, was fined about R20 000, ordered to carry out an 11-month community order and 80 hours of unpaid work, and to pay about R3 200 costs. – Daily Mail