A woman who was alleged to have drunk too much red wine on a flight from India to London, who let a stranger fondle her and at one point stripped, was cleared by a jury of being drunk onboard a flight.

Clare Irby denied drinking up to 10 glasses of wine on a flight from Bangalore to Heathrow on the 26th of March and claims she was not drunk, however a bit relaxed and tired after not getting enough sleep.

The Isleworth crown court heard that the woman was with her two year-old son on a Kingfisher Airlines flight and struck up a conversation with Daniel Melia, a passenger who was sitting behind her.  The jury heard that the pair flirted and kissed at one point he touched her breast, which Irby has denied.

A cabin crew member said Irby had three to four glasses of wine in the initial 90 minutes of the flight and at one point took off her skirt revealing her G-string.  Another flight attendant said that Irby was in no state to take care of her child.

Captain Vivek Sondhi walked through the cabin after about 4 hours into the flight and noticed the pair were drunk as they asked him to join them for a drink, which he found quite unusual and asked the flight attendants to stop serving them alcohol.  Irby said that she was not as polite as she usually is with the flight attendant.

Irby laid blame on her child for repeatedly pressing the attendant call button, saying she needed soft drinks for him.

Judge John Dennis told the jury that they had to decide whether Irby was drunk on an aircraft.

Irby’s solicitor, Richard Slade, said his client was extremely delighted at her acquittal.