A globetrotting economist has been convicted of deliberately tripping three members of Virgin cabin crew with “judo sweep” kicks during a legroom row on a flight from Johannesburg.
Hilary Diana Mackay, 54, an international Finance and Project Manager with links to MP’s and senior lawyers and accountants will return to be sentenced on April 12.
She was found guilty at Uxbridge Magistrates Court of assaulting Lucey Downey; Leanne Palmer and Phillip Sumner on Virgin Atlantic’s Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.
Ms Downey said Mackay told her: “I don’t f***ing see why I have to move out of the seat. If you’re going to keep p***ing me around and I’m sat looking at three empty seats all night I’m going to make this flight difficult for you.”
She is the ex-Company Secretary of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, a think-tank that counts Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge amongst its members and promotes democracy all over the world.
Mackay, who lives in a £942,000 home in Trebovir Road, Earl’s Court was arrested at Heathrow Airport after her Virgin Atlantic flight landed on December 12, last year.
A charge of being drunk onboard Flight VS462 was dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service.
Chain-smoker Mackay told the trial today she was approached by cabin crew after sitting in a Premium Economy seat she had not paid for.
“I told her it was a ten-hour non-smoking flight so it is best that she doesn’t wind me up. I was sitting in an extra legroom seat because someone was sitting in mine.”
She had two wines, plus rum during the flight, but insisted the row was about good service and not securing herself free extra legroom.
“They were aggressive in the first place and had a primary interest in collecting cash for the seat.”
Mackay, a former Grants Officer for the Big Lottery Fund is currently a self-employed independent consultant/researcher specialising in international research and development and humanitarian assistance.
She has a BA in Russian Studies from the University of Leeds and a postgraduate degree from Birkbeck, University of London in Economics.
Mackay told the court: “I thought it was bad taste on the part of the airline to say: ‘We are keeping these three seats empty unless someone pays us sixty pounds to sit in them’.”
She denied aggressively “thrusting” her boarding pass into the face of another crew member, but admits telling the passenger next to her: “This bitch is asking me for sixty pounds.”
Mackay describes her foot “readily moved” into judo sweeps every time a member of cabin crew passed.
Ms Downey told the court she was deliberately tripped by Mackay, who she said thrust her foot into the isle with “force and anger” causing her to trip and sustain bruising to her leg.
This left her “upset and shocked” because she was just there doing her job.
Ms Palmer told the court she saw Mackay deliberately trip her up and she had to grab a seat to prevent falling over into the isle.
In her police statement Ms Downey said: “At 10.30 my attention was drawn to a female passenger. The customer had her leg in the isle, looking like she was stretching.
“She moved it in and then moved it out to deliberately trip me and I grabbed a headrest to break my fall. She made contact by my shin and I believe this was a deliberate attempt to trip me up.”
Mr. Sumner told officers: “At. 11.05 Ms Mackay tripped me up as I approached her and tripped me up as I approached her again. She looked at me and put her foot out.
“I told her she could injure someone.”
Mackay told the magistrates: “I don’t feel guilty, I don’t feel a bit of remorse, I didn’t assault anyone. I was assaulted.”
In her statement she described the cabin crew as a line of “poo-faced blondes” who all looked alike staring at her as she was escorted off the plane by the police.
She added: “On the approach to Heathrow the captain had the gall to thank the cabin crew for their service.”
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