After refusing to get off an aircraft on Saturday and assaulting a sergeant, British national Noah Joseph Bridgeman-Morgan was fined $1 000 forthwith, with an alternative of a month’s stay at Dodds Prison.
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Bridgeman-Morgan, 25, of No. 6 Daffodil Street, Shepherd’s Bush, W12 0TG, London, appeared in the District “B” Magistrates’ Court at the Eric Holder Jnr Municipal Complex, St Joseph, yesterday where he admitted that on December 6, he remained on a Virgin Atlantic flight at Grantley Adams International Airport after being requested to leave by Kero Smith, the air operator, and that he unlawfully resisted Sergeant Stephanie McCollin of the Barbados Police Service in the execution of her duty.
Prosecutor Station Sergeant Vernon Waithe told Magistrate Douglas Frederick that the man was on a flight from Grenada on his way back to England. When the aircraft arrived in Barbados, the inbound passengers got off but he did not. He was approached by Virgin Atlantic personnel and asked to disembark, as other passengers were waiting to board that flight. He was not scheduled to travel to London on that flight, but one the next day, they told him.
Smith, a ground supervisor, boarded the plane and he, too, asked Bridgeman-Morgan to leave, since he was travelling on a different flight, but the passenger stood his ground. Eventually, airport security officers and police from the Airport Station were summoned and they requested that he disembark, but again he refused.
As a result, he was held by police, but while they were trying to arrest him, he struggled with police and airport security – from inside the plane until he reached the bottom of the steps. He was arrested and taken to Oistins Police Station.
When Magistrate Frederick asked if he had anything to say, Bridgeman-Morgan said “the situation happened, but it should not have gone that way” and he should have dealt with it “in a different manner”.
He insisted that he was trying to tell the Virgin Atlantic crew that he needed to return to England on that flight because he had only been given a week off to attend his cousin’s funeral, and he had no extra money to overnight in Barbados, nor did he know anyone on the island.
As far as he was aware, he added, it was supposed to be a short stop-over in Barbados and then straight on to England – rather than overnighting here.
He also apologised to the court and the sergeant for his behaviour.
Bridgeman-Morgan was remanded to Dodds overnight and will return to court today, by which time the fine is expected to be paid. (SD)