Lawyer jailed for spitting at air crew after being refused alcohol is found dead

Simone Burns' body was discovered at the foot of Beachy Head days after being freed from jail.

An international lawyer who called air crew money-grabbing c**ts and smoked on a flight has died days after being released from prison.

Simone Burns, 50, is believed to have killed herself after her body was discovered at the foot of Beachy Head cliffs in East Sussex.

She had just been freed from Bronzefield women’s prison where she had been serving a six-month prison sentence following the racist rant on an Air India flight.

A friend said that she had been targeted by trolls following her conviction and that it caused her world to fall apart, according to the Telegraph.

A police spokesman said: ‘The body of a woman found at Beachy Head on June 1 has been identified as Simone Burns from Hove.

‘The death is not being treated as suspicious and the next of kin have been informed. The matter has been passed to the coroner’s office.

In the incident on the plane she was in business class when she was refused a fourth bottle of wine with her breakfast ‘immediately after take-off’.

She told them she was a ‘f**king international lawyer’

Prosecutor Lauren Smith said: ‘[Burns] got up from her seat and began swearing and shouting. She was shouting that she was a “f**king international lawyer” and telling them to “f*** off”.’

She was given a verbal warning by staff after a verbal warning by cabin crew followed by a written warning from the captain, but her behaviour continued.

She shouted: ‘F**k Air India is useless, I will say what I want.’

She spat in the face of one of the cabin crew and grabbed their arm, abusing other crew members and passengers.

Burns, who was also known as Simone O’Broin, was arrested in London before being taken to court.

Judge Nicholas Wood told her at Isleworth Crown Court: ‘Those who come drunk on an aircraft and behave in such as way must expect a custodial sentence.

‘The experience of a drunk unrepentant irrational person in the confines of an aircraft is frightening not least on a long haul flight and poses a risk to safety.’

He added that although the aircraft was not at risk by Burns’ behaviour, ‘there is no escape at 3000 feet’.

‘To spit in a cabin crew member’s face at close range is insulting and upsetting. Another member of staff said in his 34 years of work he had never been treated that way by a woman,’ he said.

‘I’m satisfied that this offence was racially aggravated but than it was not meant at all. For the passengers on that Air India flight it must have been very upsetting, especially with the language you used.’

Calling Burns ‘abusive, contemptuous and confrontational’, he sentenced her to six months in prison for being drunk on aircraft.

She was also given two months behind bars for assault, to be served concurrently, and ordered to pay £300 compensation to Ms Pervin.