Lee Ryan is trying to reverse his plea for assaulting a police officer after he pleaded guilty to that and using racially abusive language towards a Black flight attendant.
The Blue star, 39, was previously found guilty on January 12 at Ealing Magistrates’ Court of being drunk on an aircraft, assaulting a police officer by biting him as well as the abusive language used towards cabin crew.
Ryan was “slurring his words and staggering around” after drinking a whole bottle of port before the British Airways flight from Glasgow to London City Airport on July 31 last year. The singer was photographed walking into Westminster Magistrates' Court wearing a black suit, white shirt and a pair of dark sunglasses earlier on Tuesday.
During the trial five months ago, the court heard how the former popstar told the black cabin crew member: "I want your chocolate children," and asked her to kiss him. In court, Ryan stated: "I'm not racist" and claimed it was "drunk banter" with no malice intended.
The singer is currently awaiting sentencing but it's thought that he is trying to reverse the plea regarding the police officer during today's hearing.
The singer was arrested in August 2022 and subsequently released a statement addressing the incident.
He opened up on his "struggles with alcohol" claiming he will "often say or do silly things as a result of that, which in turn has caused problems for myself and those around me".
"For that I want to apologise to everyone I have upset or offended," he said before added he "acted inappropriately on a flight to London".
"I want to say sorry to the airline staff, everyone on the flight, as well as my band mates, my family and our fans," Lee continued.
"The time has come for me to take ownership of the root cause of these problems and for that reason, I am reducing my schedule for the time being to seek professional help and spend time with my family.
"By starting this journey of working on my mental health I hope to emerge a better person for it."
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