Least convincing defence ever?
I was too drunk to fly, says attacker
By Isambard Wilkinson in Madrid
A BRITON who attacked an air hostess with a vodka bottle on a flight from Gatwick to Malaga claimed yesterday that he should never have been allowed to board the aircraft.
Steven Handy, 40, who has admitted assaulting Fiona Weir, 33, and a Spanish policeman, told a court in Malaga: "I should not have been allowed to board that plane when everyone could see I was drunk."
Mrs Weir, from Wimbledon, south London, last month told the court she thought Handy would kill her. She was permanently scarred when he smashed the bottle over her head before repeatedly stabbing her with its jagged edge.
The court heard that Handy, who was abusive throughout the two-and-half-hour Airtours flight on Oct 30 1998, attacked Mrs Weir after she told him that Spanish police would be waiting for him when the aircraft landed. She managed to escape from Handy when other passengers restrained him but she later collapsed on the runway.
Handy, from Coventry, who was extradited in December, admitted drinking most of a litre bottle of vodka before the flight. He said: "My defence is I had no intent. I never intended to do it. I am not a violent person unless someone puts my back up and I am drunk. I just lost it when I heard the word police. I just exploded."
Three Spanish police officers said Handy fiercely resisted arrest when they escorted him from the jet. Another officer yesterday described how Handy kicked him in the shins as he tried to escape from hospital where he had been taken after his arrest.
The panel of three judges said that Handy would be sentenced today. Spanish prosecutors are demanding a six-year jail sentence. In his final speech to the court Handy denied that he stabbed Mrs Weir with the bottle. He claimed he did not attack her again after first hitting her with the bottle.
Handy, who is unemployed and now professes to be a born-again Christian, said he had brought a Bible to court to give to Mrs Weir, who was not at the hearing. He denied using his new-found religion as a plea for leniency. He said: "I swear on my life it's not a ploy. I really have found Jesus. Now I can see when before I was blind - blind drunk, if you like."
"I am not a violent person unless someone puts my back up and I am drunk"????!!!! Oh well, that's fine then - you should have mentioned that before, matey, and things would never have got this far...
I hope he gets what he deserves.