Acquitted Guinness socialite 'delighted' ordeal is over

Cleared: Clare Irby said she had been "relaxed but not drunk on the flight" from India. She was acquitted on a legal technicality
Emma Rowley12 April 2012

A socialite accused of stripping down to her knickers and letting a stranger grope her breasts during a flight said today she was both "delighted and relieved" her six-month ordeal was over.

Clare Irby, a descendant of the Guinness brewing family, was accused of drinking up to 12 glasses of red wine on the flight from Bangalore, India, to London's Heathrow Airport on March 26.

But the jury of eight men and four women at Isleworth Crown Court, west London, took just 40 minutes to unanimously clear the single mother of being drunk on board an aircraft.

Miss Irby, 30, of Fulham, west London, smiled and looked at the ceiling as the jury foreman read out the not guilty verdict.

She stood quietly in the dock fighting back tears before putting her hand on her chest and later wiping tears from her cheeks.

She mouthed "Oh my God" to her mother, Emma, who was sitting in the public gallery to the side of the court when she was acquitted.

Her mother said: "It's great. I can't believe it."

Outside the courtroom, Miss Irby was laughing as she took a moment away from the cameras to hug her father, Old Etonian banker Paul Aschan, a scion of the Guinness brewing dynasty who has been in court with her throughout the three-day trial.

Later, Miss Irby waved and smiled for photographers as she hugged her mother outside.

At one point, she punched the air and said: "It's over!"

In a statement, her solicitor Richard Slade said: "Clare simply wants to say that she's delighted and relieved that she has been acquitted on this charge.

"She wishes in particular to thank the jury for the time and careful consideration they have given this case and she now wants to be allowed a short period of quiet to enjoy some time with her family, in particular her young son."

Miss Irby constantly denied being drunk, saying she was just "tipsy" as she was suffering from sleep deprivation after getting only two-and-a-half hours' sleep in 48 hours.

She insisted she had full control of her faculties, but admitted that she was "curt" with the flight attendants and "not as polite as I usually am".

Judge John Denniss told the jurors they had to decide whether Miss Irby was drunk on an aircraft while in the "territorial jurisdiction" of the UK.

This started about 20 minutes before the 10.5-hour flight landed at Heathrow at about 5pm, he said.

Miss Irby was banned from being served any alcohol after the first four hours of the flight - about 10.30am British time - and a police doctor declared she was sober and fit to be interviewed shortly before 10pm.

She denied fellow passenger Daniel Melia, 36, touched her breast, and said she did not strip to her knickers in order to change from her yellow skirt into warmer black leggings.

"He didn't touch me in any inappropriate manner. He didn't touch my breasts," she said.

Miss Irby said she was simply "exhausted" trying to care for her two-year-old son on little sleep.

The accusations against her were "outrageous" and "gobsmacking", she said.

"I was a bit relaxed but I was certainly very together," she said.

"I was exhausted beyond belief. I was really, really tired. I would say I was suffering from sleep deprivation at this point."

Asked why she told police who interviewed her at Heathrow that her head was "spinning", she said it was from the tiredness.

"When you're tired and you're hearing all these outrageous accusations... I was shocked. My jaw was on the floor."

Miss Irby also blamed her two-year-old son for her repeatedly pressing the attendant call button, saying she needed soft drinks for him, and for her talking loudly.

"I personally feel sorry for people who sit by me because I know I'm louder than the average person because I have a child who I care for and have to make sure he behaves as well as he can," she said.

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