Lee Ryan's Final Appeal Fails as High Court Brands Assault Challenge 'Frivolous'

Blue singer Lee Ryan has lost his final legal attempt to overturn his conviction for racially aggravated assault on British Airways flight attendant Leah Gordon, after High Court judges in London branded his challenge 'frivolous' and cleared the way for the 43-year-old to be sentenced over the incident on a Glasgow to London flight in July 2022.

On Tuesday, Lord Justice Holgate and Mr Justice Johnson dismissed Ryan's claim and backed a lower court's refusal to send his case to the High Court, effectively shutting off his last legal route of appeal.

Ryan was prosecuted after a drunken episode on the BA service to London City Airport on 31 July 2022, during which he made racially charged remarks to Ms Gordon, who is Black, and physically touched her while unsteady on his feet. He later admitted being drunk on an aircraft but denied the level of aggression alleged.

In January 2023, Ealing Magistrates' Court found the Blue frontman guilty of racially aggravated common assault and of behaving abusively towards a member of cabin crew.

He was handed a 12-month suspended prison sentence at Isleworth Crown Court in September 2023, after already admitting the separate offence of being drunk on an aircraft.

That sentence was set aside while Ryan pursued an appeal, which the Crown Court partly allowed in November 2023, quashing a conviction for threatening aircraft crew but upholding the racially aggravated assault conviction relating to Ms Gordon.

What Judges Said Happened On The Flight

In their joint judgment, the High Court judges set out what had happened on board. Ryan had drunk a bottle of port before or during the journey and was visibly drunk, slurring his words and staggering around the cabin.

He approached Ms Gordon, told her she was pretty, and compared her to a 'sweet chocolate chip cookie'.

When told to return to his seat and refused more alcohol, he reached out and touched her, physical contact that was 'common ground' between both sides.

The dispute centred on how far that contact went. Ms Gordon said Ryan grabbed both her wrists, leaned in as if to kiss her, and said he would 'have your chocolate babies.'

Ryan was arrested after landing and, in a police interview, accepted he had grabbed her wrists, though he denied any menace and later told officers he had been a 'd***head.'

At the Crown Court appeal, however, he shifted his account, saying he had not grabbed her wrists at all but had merely touched them with open palms as an apology.

High Court Upholds 'Frivolous' Ruling

Ryan's lawyers argued the Crown Court judge was wrong to treat the change in his account as damaging to his credibility, and wrong to draw any adverse inference from answers he gave while under arrest for different offences.

The High Court rejected that, saying the Crown Court had been 'entitled to rely on the inconsistency between Mr Ryan's account in interview, which coincided with Ms Gordon's allegation that he had grabbed her wrists, and the account he gave in evidence'.

The judges described Ms Gordon as a 'consistent and compelling witness' who had been sober throughout the incident, in contrast to Ryan, who had been drunk and given inconsistent versions of events. That, they said, was enough to justify dismissing his appeal against conviction.

On the technical point, the judges concluded there had been 'no error' in the Crown Court's decision to refuse to state a case, agreeing it had been right to regard his proposed appeal as frivolous.

The ruling means Ryan's attempt to clear his name on the assault charge has reached a legal dead end. His case now returns to Isleworth Crown Court, where he is due to be sentenced.