A DRUNKEN mum who forced a flight to turn back to Manchester after she swore and threatened a stewardess has narrowly avoided a prison sentence.

Julie Morris, 54, from Blackburn, was travelling with her family on a Ryanair flight from Manchester to the Spanish party island of Ibiza in September, when shortly after take-off she began screaming and shouting swear words in the cabin.

Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court heard how the captain was then forced to turn the aircraft back around 20 minutes into the journey when Morris plunged into a drunken rage after swigging vodka from a cola bottle.

She also swore at a member of cabin crew and threatened to punch her, it was said.

Presiding over the case, Judge Stuart Driver QC said her behaviour ‘caused significant disruption, inconvenience and no doubt anxiety to a large number of innocent people’.

Morris later said she was ‘deeply ashamed’, and her barrister claimed in court she was drinking as a form of ‘escapism’ as she didn’t want to go on the holiday.

The court also heard how the defendant was sitting opposite a family with a baby, and a female member of cabin crew asked her if she would stop swearing.

However, she simply replied ‘f*** off, you f*****g b***h’ and as the stewardess walked away she was heard to shout, 'I will punch her’.

She was moved to another seat but she ‘continued to be disruptive’, Brian Mckenna, prosecuting, said.

It was at this stage the decision was made to turn back the aircraft and an alert to the police in Manchester was made.

Officers were waiting for Morris after the plane landed in Manchester and they described her as ‘swaying’ and ‘slurring her words’ as she was hauled off the aircraft.

She was taken to Cheadle Police Station in Stockport but was considered too drunk to be interviewed for several hours, the court was told.

The cola bottle she had been drinking from was recovered from her seat and smelled strongly of alcohol.

Morris pleaded guilty to being drunk on an aircraft during an earlier hearing in October.

Defending, Duncan Nightingale said his client didn’t want to go on the holiday but said she felt she had to as it was her daughter’s 21st birthday and he described her excessive drinking as a form of ‘escapism.’

He added: “She is deeply, deeply, ashamed by her actions.

“The amount of alcohol she had consumed I think amounts to escapism for the holiday that was in front of them.

“She’s ashamed - not only for herself but for her family,” said Mr Mckenna.

He said Morris, of Shakespeare Way, Blackburn, had been suspended from her job and would likely be sacked after she’d been sentenced.

She was handed a six-month prison sentence, suspended for a year, and ordered to take part in a probation service rehabilitation programme.

Judge Driver said: “This was a serious incident which caused significant disruption, inconvenience and no doubt anxiety to a large number of innocent people.

“It does warrant a prison sentence, however due to your personal circumstances I am able to suspend that sentence.”