Uni Lecturer Gets Off after Punching Jetstar Crew.
 

Uni Lecturer Gets Off after Punching Jetstar Crew.

From the Age:

"Uni lecturer free over airport assault

November 27, 2007 - 3:14PM


A Sydney university lecturer who swore at a Jetstar employee and punched him in the face because she was late for her flight has escaped conviction.

Patricia McManus, 42, of Carlingford, on Tuesday pleaded guilty to two counts of assault and swearing in a public place after an incident at Sydney's domestic airport last month.

McManus tried to check in 12 minutes before her Jetstar flight to Hervey Bay, Queensland, was scheduled to leave and started swearing at staff when told she was too late, according to a statement of facts.

McManus later punched the customer service manager twice in the face after he refused to let her back into the terminal.

Magistrate Lee Gilmour said she accepted McManus had acted out of character and was deeply stressed at the time of the offence.

"I understand how you got so angry ... (but) once you got over the initial shock of being denied access to the plane, you calmed down and police said you were extremely contrite," she said.

Ms Gilmour, who recently has come under media scrutiny over the leniency of the penalties she hands down, ordered McManus to pay $70 in court costs.

"At the risk of offending The Daily Telegraph and John Laws' talkback show, I do not need to record a conviction," she said.

"Just be careful, airports are very stressful places for a lot of people."

I guess it goes with the territory these days......

I wonder if the Magistrate would have been so lenient if it was her that was punched.....

At least the staff know that if they now belt a passenger that they won't get a criminal record from it.......it's a stressful place after all.

Fair dinkum but how do fruit loops like this get onto the bench?!?! :eek:

Armchair Jurists
 

Newspapers don't spoil good stories with the facts. Before passing judgment on the magistrate's, maybe it would be wise to read a full transcript of the proceedings and review the evidence before you comment on what the press has published.

It's OK Mr Bin Liner, I won't be recording a conviction for your terrorist activities, I mean you were at the airport and we all know they can be such stressful places...:rolleyes:

Where does the madness stop?

Well at the very least I hope she has been blackbanned from any future JQ or QF flights, and that information has also been shared with other Australian airlines... :ugh: :yuk: := :*

Wonder what the sentence would have been if it were a stay at home mother...

If the lady punched the guy OUTSIDE the terminal that means she was hostile enough to have been evicted from the terminal.

Wonder what would have happend if one of the professors students punched her in the face during uni exams... they are stressful after all! :ugh:

Courts are very stressfull places too, if I don't like a magistrates decision is it alright to punch him ? :E

Calm down guys!

"Calmed down; expressed contrition to the police" and pleaded guilty.

It's probably the right way to treat a first offender.

Not all bad (stupid) behaviour requires punishment. A ticking off will sometimes do it.

So let me understand this correctly. We actually don't subscribe to the theory of 'zero tolerance'. It appears that we actually are prepared to tolerate assault as long as it's a 'stressful' situation. Personally i'd prefer to live in a society where everyone understood that it's actually not acceptable to flip your lid and resort to physical violence to solve the issues.

Amen Keg...

Just Curious!
 

I wonder if the magistrate would have been as kind had the incident occurred in the air? I bet not, so when is assult acceptable?
Don't forget, flying can be stressful for some too!

BSB

What a joke - imagine what would have happened if the JQ staff member touched her?

Airports are stressful places..........so does that mean all the staff can punch people? I can't believe she got away with that. The courts are a joke.

Rather than paying an insignificant $70, as a fine, she could do 70 hrs community service, handling irate customers at the airport checkin... It is such a stressful place after all...:rolleyes:

Err did she punch the staff member or not? Thats really all that needs to be said.

People have bad days all the time. Very few of those punch people in the face. May i add that in certain unfortunate circumstances people have died from this.

Highly reccomend passing this persons name to the relevant manager where you work so she can be blacklisted. The 70 bucks won't hurt, but tell you what, not being able to fly anywhere in Australia indefinitely certainly will.

Enoughs enough.

I'm surprised that you're all missing the connection here!
Female Uni lecturer...
Female magistrate...
aw!..c'mon guys!!
Are you really that thick?

TWICE!!:rolleyes:

Keg Absolutely do not subscribe to "zero tolerance". Most of those who use the term sound like the leaders of the lynch mob to me. (And I don't think you are one of them)

That aside, this idiot did not get off scot free. She was arrested, charged, went to court and we are discussing her here.

My post was intended to say that I found that an adequate outcome.

Mmm!!!
 

FEMALE Uni Lecturer :yuk:
FEMALE Magistrate--Uni Graduate ??:confused:

Short Hair:*
Big Earings:(
Hairy Legs:E

Mmmmm !!!:eek:

Why don't you say that to the person who actually got punched, twice, in the face?

A $70 fine and the "inconvenience" of having to appear in court is not nearly sufficient. You say you are quite happy with the process thats taken place... what if it were you or your wife/husband or your kid or your parent that was punched in the face twice for NO reason whatsoever? I doubt you would be as forgiving then...

I wonder if this offence could actually be classified under the CAO's/CAR's as violence against an airline officer? Although I guess Magistrate Forgive-a-lot wouldn't care anyway :*

So, I guess I gotta spell it out!

Michael Kirby!

may be just a couple lesbo's looking out for each other-not that there is anything wrong with that

http://www.business.ecu.edu.au/news/...cam_bbq09.html

:=

How is it possible to plead guilty to assault and not have a conviction recorded?

"You poor stressed wee lamb,you obviously didn,t mean to punch the nasty man twice"

It is unbelievable

Very easily. As I posted earlier, all red-necks should read the transcript and review the evidence before sounding off in an irrational way. Reports of matters before the courts often omit serious material facts and factors in mitigation. After all, the papers are only interested in a story that grabs the attention of the reader, often in a sensational and mis-leading way - just look at most of the reporting concerning aviation incidents to see what I mean.

.

Capt. Cynical hit the nail on the head. She may've escaped conviction but I'm sure the magistrate still gave her a tongue-lashing.

"See me in my chambers after court, Professor.." :p

Amos,

What's Kirby J. got to do with this?

B A Lert,

Is the transcript - or judgment - available on the net? I would like to read it.

IMHO assault is serious enough not to qualify for a s.556A (a section of the Crimes Act whereby you can have a penalty imposed but no conviction recorded for a first offence - allows behaviour way out of character to be sort-of excused) but Lert is right in that we don't know all the facts.

But, it appears that Jetstar are considering appealing. For once, I wish JQ well.

Considering Jetstars booking practices and half hour "cutoff" point, I'm surprised Jetstar staff haven't copped more abuse and assaults.

Jetstars business practices put their staff at risk. It also cannot be very pleasant for other passengers to witness these types of goings on, but then again, what would Qantas or Jetstar management care?

What's the difference, Fishy. They could invoke a 5min cut-off and some people like this professor tw@t would still cut it by a minute or two and start swinging their manbags when told to fcuk off.

Why TF should management take responsibility for some dick throwing punches??? You're living in a dreamworld, man...

Is there any airline you actually like?

???





http://www.airteamimages.com/pics/49/49776_800.jpg

Just take her to civil court. A lot easier to get money out of her there.

...............obviously the attack was unacceptable as most have indicated in here & so it ought to be. But ponder this...................the person doing the assaulting was a male !!!..............I doubt it very much that the outcome would be what we have here. I believe that punishing someone for such an act is the only way now in our stressfull society but may I put it to the masses here that rather than fining someone here huge amounts (obviously not in this case) or a custodian penalty (that's obviously needed in very serious cases) but rather a recorded conviction that will follow her for the rest of her life. That action will do more harm for an individual than any other lessor penalty making anybody think twice before behaving poorly in public.
Still road rage is now very common place out there & maybe this is a sign 'Air Rage' is becoming part of our busy & hectic lives having an effect on every rational thinking person.

Capt Wally:-)

In the words of the great Jeff Foxworthy.............

And she sure looks like a redneck, great to see our educational dollar being spent wisely!

J:ok:

PS not your mum is it Rove?:E

Perhaps the AFP might consider lodging an Appeal against what appears to be a totally inadequate sentence.

Scotty Doo is spot on. You buy the ticket you know the deal 30 minutes and thats that.

I ask again did she or did she not punch a staff member? No need to spend hours trying to work out pros and cons. If the answer is yes - Simple, life ban from all air travel.

I wouldn't waste time waiting for the justice system to provide justice to its citizens.

Sunfish touches on a significant point and I think Jetstar may have to appeal the apparent leniency of the punishment.
The company has a "duty of care" to provide a safe working environment and it may come to pass that if they are seen as not doing this or are not making a serious attempt to protect their staff then it could precipitate industrial/OH&S action down the track.

"At the risk of offending The Daily Telegraph and John Laws' talkback show, I do not need to record a conviction," she said.

"Just be careful, airports are very stressful places for a lot of people."

I worked in a terminal with pax for about seven years.

From many examples, I remember...
A woman returning to China with the ashes of her only son,
Several families travelling with severely disabled children,
A woman travelling with her paranoid schizophrenic teenage son, who thought the PA messages were demons and needed her constant reassurance,
A couple returning to New York after their nephew was killed in the WTC on 9/11,
Many, many people who had missed their flight (sometimes therefore missing an important personal occasion) and hundreds (thousands?) of other people dealing with air travel while undergoing appalling amounts of stress.

None of those people lost control to the extent of resorting to physical violence. Some were verbally abusive, and in the circumstances that was probably understandable, but NONE of them felt the need to punch a staff member in the face.

This is just the latest example of the lack of personal accountability seeping into our culture, where a person can physically assault someone, then jump back and say "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it!! I was very upset at the time...", then receive a pat on the head and a "there, there" from the judiciary.

It sends a message to all the erks out there that they can treat customer service people like serfs and escape any major repurcussions.


B A Lert I take your point about reading the transcript (I had a trawl on the net and couldn't find anything), but she did plead guilty to two counts of assault, and has been widely reported as having punched the employee.

This has nothing to do with Jetstar as it is a criminal matter. The DPP may appeal, sometimes as a result of public dismay.

I don’t know much about the legalities here, but I wonder what would have happened if the Jet* employee hit back? :confused:
Well, lets see what Jet* does, if they don’t appeal, why don’t we all starting hitting the heads of check in staff of the same gender? ( I am kidding here, Just pointing out how stupid this is)
The precedent has been set.
I am disgusted the way this has been treated. :mad:
I wish she was allowed on my plane, If I saw this happen I would go back and “accidentally” shove her face into the seat arm as she is going down to the floor where I would knee her in the neck while controlling her with a fist full of her hair and cuff her. Hey, I am allowed to on the plane. :O:O:O
If Jet* doesn’t reply, then they are just an embarrassment and left them selves open to future problems.:=

It has everything to do with J*, Lert. They recognise the fact it happened on their time and they appear to be supporting the cause. This does not mean it is J* taking action against the b!tch; they're a difference and it seems J* appreciate this. For once (from what I hear) acting pro-staff.

If you believe this means protecting staff from idiots like this woman, then you might be a part of the problem rather than the solution.

The campany shouldn't have to dance around reacting to every act of anti-social behaviour by any miscreant who walks through the door. Okay, maybe kick the arses of the security morons whose fat @rses maybe took too long to get there and stop the second punch.

Are there gaping holes in the floor, waiting to endanger the staff, or anything like that? No? Do they provide hearing protection and hi-vis vests for the staff? Well then I think they are providing a safe environment. Saying they need to preempt some slag like this uni-bitch is unrealistic and silly.

As for the conviction, I'd say if the strikes had been described as "slaps" or even "bitch-slaps" then there'd be a case for letting her off. But if they were truly "punches" then this bitch should be on ice.