In a drink and drug-fuelled air rage attack, a 31-year-old man punched and kicked a British millionaire, and also bit off a chunk from his right earlobe.
Ben Addison attacked 53-year-old manufacturing boss Neil Endley while they were flying to Majorca, reported Mirror. Addison also injured three police officers in the Sept. 18, 2020 incident. They tried to remove him from the Ryanair flight from Birmingham after it landed at Palma.
Addison confessed to the vicious assault, and escaped prison. 9 News reported that a court in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, gave Addison 10 months in jail, but decided to suspend the sentence. It means that he will avoid jail as long as he doesn't commit more crimes in the next two years. The New York Daily Paper reported that the court also fined him 720 euros ($717.38) for his bizarre attack.
Endley had been advised it was in his interests to renounce his right to prosecute alongside state lawyers due to an ongoing legal action in the U.K. against Ryanair, said sources. His lawyers are understood to be pursuing a large pay-out from the airline for letting the attacker board the plane after consuming a lot of alcohol and drugs.
The convicted air rage passenger hid his head behind his hands and kept his sunglasses on when he walked into court on Monday. Addison paid the three Civil Guard officers a total of 1,150 pounds ($1,308.12) in compensation after the incident.
An indictment, which is set to be transcribed into a written sentence following Addison's admission of guilt, said that his cognitive functions had been “diminished by drugs and alcohol” before Ryanair flight FR2162. It added that around 11.25 p.m. on Sept. 18, 2020, and after causing many incidents with other passengers, Addison "leapt on Endley after the plane from Birmingham landed with the intention of harming him." The indictment said that he kicked Endley and punched him "several times in the head." He then threw the victim on the floor and "bit his right ear, tearing part of his earlobe off and leaving his victim needing stitches."
Police previously said that the air rage happened when Addison was refused more alcohol on the half-empty flight.
