A former soldier who sexually assaulted four members of cabin crew on one flight and forced it to divert has been jailed.
Joseph McCabe, 40, ‘smirked’ as he groped and grabbed four Jet2 stewards on a holiday flight from Edinburgh to Tenerife – and now finds himself on the sex offenders register.
The builder ripped up a written warning about his drunken behaviour after making sexual comments to one woman about her tights and makeup, and asking her age and where she lived.
McCabe groped and slapped the buttocks of two air stewards before grabbing a third around the waist and trying to hug a fourth.
He also threw his bank card at an airline employee and danced down the aisle during the outrageous episode in March last year.
His disgusting behaviour forced the plane to divert to the island of Porto Santo – delaying his fellow passenger by two hours.
Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard that Portuguese police boarded the plane and arrested nuisance McCabe after the unplanned landing.
Joseph McCabe, 40, was jailed for 46 after admitting to four sexual offenses
His assaulted members of the crew on a Jet2 flight from Edinburgh to Tenerife
McCabe served as a private in the Royal Logistic Corps for five years before he set up the B-Heard clothing business in memory of a friend who took his own life during the Covid 19 lockdown.
He now runs his own construction firm and co-owns a party boat business called The Drunken Anchor.
McCabe, of Tollcross, Glasgow, pleaded guilty to the four sexual offences during an appearance at the capital court last month and he returned to the dock for sentencing on Friday.
Sheriff Alison Stirling was told Jet2 had banned McCabe from their flights for life, and that he had refused to pay the £5000 imposed by the airline.
Sheriff Stirling said the offence involved ‘a high level of culpability and a high level of harm’ as she sentenced McCabe to 46 weeks behind bars.
The sheriff also put the tradesman on the sex offenders register for 10 years and imposed indefinite non-harassment orders banning him from having any contact with the victims.
Anna Kocela, defending McCabe, said her client had been drinking excessively at the time of the flight due to a family bereavement.
Prosecutor Miriam Farooq previously told the court the Jet2 flight took off from Edinburgh Airport bound for Tenerife with roughy 110 passengers at around 8.30am on March 15 last year.
Ms Farooq said the flight was packed with families and children and shortly after take off cabin crew had noticed McCabe ‘making multiple trips to the toilet’.
The prosecutor said that around 90 minutes into the flight a female flight attendant ‘felt someone behind her touching her buttocks’ as she was serving another passenger.
She turned round to find McCabe was ‘looking at her with a smirk on his face’ and had asked her ‘where she bought her tights because he liked them’.
The perverted builder asked the woman how old she was and where she lived – and went on to slap the buttocks of a male steward later in the flight.
McCabe, a father of two, was also seen attempting to hug a second female victim and putting his hands on a third female employee for around 30 seconds.
McCabe was issued with a verbal warning and then a written warning, which he tore up.
Ms Farooq said: ‘A decision was made to divert the aircraft and the captain was instructed by air traffic control to land at the airfield at Porto Santo.
‘After landing the accused got out of his seat and began dancing in the aisle. Portuguese police boarded the flight and arrested him and took him into custody.’
The court heard the holiday flight resumed its journey and eventually landed in Tenerife two hours late.
