A South African teacher who groped a male flight steward after drinking half a litre of whisky on a flight to London has been spared imprisonment.

Katherine Goldberg, a 25-year-old who lives in Ealing, grabbed the airline steward’s crotch and demanded sex on a Virgin Atlantic flight from Johannesburg to Heathrow on 24 August. She appeared in a London court on Monday, where she was spared jail so she can keep her job, according to IOL.

She was instead given a community order after the judge was told a prison sentence would mean she would not be allowed to teach again.

“I would be wrong to impose a lifetime punishment by preventing you working in a profession where you clearly have talent,” said Judge Andrew McDowall at Isleworth Crown Court.

Goldberg told police she had a drinking problem. She admitted being drunk on a plane and indecent assault and was fined £1 500 and ordered to do 80 hours community work.

A prison sentence or community order longer than a year would have meant Goldberg would have had to sign the sex offender register, meaning she could no longer work with children.

At an earlier hearing, it was alleged that Goldberg had smuggled the whisky in two plastic bottles which were found under her chair.

The court was told that, during her drunken stupor, she mistook the male steward for her South African boyfriend Clayton and former boyfriend Owen. As she writhed on the floor she was heard to tell the steward “let me and you go somewhere – you can touch me anywhere you want because I don’t mind”.

By Special correspondent