{"id":402190,"date":"2026-04-16T20:31:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T20:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/402190\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T20:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T20:31:08","slug":"man-sexually-assaulted-ryanair-cabin-crew-member-mid-flight-court-hears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/402190\/","title":{"rendered":"Man sexually assaulted Ryanair cabin crew member mid-flight, court hears"},"content":{"rendered":"

A woman has said she was only doing her job when a man sexually assaulted her while she was working as cabin crew on a Ryanair flight.<\/p>\n

In a victim impact statement, the woman said she was \u201csexually assaulted in a tight and confined space\u201d where colleagues were also present.<\/p>\n

She said her sense of safety and peace has been \u201ccompletely shattered\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was only doing my job when this happened\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n

She said she fell in love with flying when she joined Ryanair, but has since resigned.<\/p>\n

She said she feels there is a \u201clayer of shame over me\u201d and \u201cstill feels disgusting\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe road to recovery feels long and unreachable,\u201d the woman said, adding that she is taking it one day at a time.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife hasn\u2019t been the kindest to me, and what happened is an extra heavy load,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard on Thursday the incident occurred while the flight was in the air, approximately 40 minutes before it was due to land in Dublin.<\/p>\n

Aaron Brady (31) of Main Street, Killeshandra, Co Cavan pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the woman on an inbound flight to Dublin Airport.<\/p>\n

The court was told he has no memory of the incident and has a problem with drink, which he is addressing.<\/p>\n

Taking the stand, Brady said he drank around five bottles of wine with his partner at the airport before boarding the flight and potentially between 12 and 15 mini bottles of alcohol during the flight.<\/p>\n

He said he has not had a drink in a year.<\/p>\n

Brady said he was \u201creally, really sorry, sincerely\u201d and said his offending was \u201cout of character\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t believe it, I\u2019m so sorry for the trauma it has caused you. It\u2019s not me at all…I\u2019m really, really sorry\u201d.<\/p>\n

Judge Jonathan Dunphy asked him if he had been banned for life from Ryanair flights, with Brady telling him the ban was for five years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand it is for life\u201d, the judge noted.<\/p>\n

The court heard the woman also faced financial losses of over \u20ac3,000 due to the incident, including sick leave, voluntary absences and her resignation.<\/p>\n

Judge Dunphy asked if the woman had to bear those costs instead of her employer, with the prosecution confirming she did.<\/p>\n

Keith Spencer BL, defending, said the amount of drink taken by Brady before boarding and on the flight \u201cis almost mind-boggling\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said his client deeply regrets what happened, did not intend it to occur, is ashamed and apologetic.<\/p>\n

Counsel asked the court to consider his client\u2019s early guilty plea, good work record in an ice cream factory and the contents of a probation report.<\/p>\n

He noted his client had \u20ac5,000 available as a gesture of remorse, which the court heard the woman is willing to accept.<\/p>\n

Spencer said his client is willing to repay the woman\u2019s expenses and could save another \u20ac5,000 if given more time.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Residents<\/p>\n

Ireland<\/p>\n

Residents blocking entrance to O’Callaghan Dublin hotel extension site, court hears<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Dunphy said he would adjourn the case to June for finalisation to allow Brady to address the woman\u2019s expenses outlined in the victim impact statement. He directed that the \u20ac5,000 should be paid over within the next 24 hours for onward transmission to the woman.<\/p>\n

He said he would \u201csomewhat reluctantly\u201d remand Brady on continuing bail so he could continue to work, adding that the court\u2019s concern was the losses experienced by the woman.<\/p>\n

Addressing the woman, Judge Dunphy said he was grateful for her attendance, and said he wanted to finalise the case \u201cin the right way so that everyone can move on from this\u201d.<\/p>\n

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie\/services\/helpline\/ or visit Rape Crisis Help. In the case of an emergency, always dial 999\/112. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman has said she was only doing her job when a man sexually assaulted her while she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-402190","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}