Katherine Goldberg has been charged with sexual assault and fined £1500 with 80 hours of community service for groping a male air steward.
Where did she touch him?
On the South Africa to London night flight. You can read more about it here
Now these 'usually the other way round' type stories are always popular in the press and generally trigger loads of comments such as:
"She should be jailed. If she'd been a man, she er- he would have been sent down for years etc"
The trouble is, it isn't the same. It might not be PC to say it but it is true. When a man gropes a woman, it must often seem threatening and frightening to her because of his greater physical strength and the unconscious worry of what he could do to her if she resists his advances. It's right that this should be punished by the law.
However, a woman groping a man is simply not a physical threat.
All I can say is that if I'd been the steward I would have been straight under the complimentary flight blanket and sod all the miserable passengers pressing their buzzers to pester me for another cushion or a glass of water for their screaming brat.
Oh and 'Alcohol induced illusion' is definitely an excuse to remember.
