Lauren niece flies home after air-rage court case
The 41-year old niece of fashion icon Ralph Lauren flew home to the US this morning after a three-night stay in Ireland that she will want to forget in a hurry.
Jenny Lauren flew out on the United Airlines UA24 flight to Newark at 9.43am from Shannon airport today after a bruising experience here.
Ms Lauren was able to fly home to after reclaiming her passport from Shannon gardaí and will touch down in Newark later today.
Ms Lauren flew out less than 24 hours after she walked free from Ennis District Court following being convicted and ordered to pay €2,000 in relation to an air-rage offence.
Outlining the facts behind the incident on board the JFK bound flight on Monday at a district court sitting at Ennis Courthouse yesterday, Insp Tom Kennedy told the court that Ms Lauren called one female member of cabin crew, Jennifer Simpson “a fat, ugly, unhappy, blond b**ch” and told another female staff member, Constance Topping that she was “a f***ing ugly, blond b**ch”.
On a cocktail of prescribed medicine and alcohol, Ms Lauren pushed Ms Topping hard up against the wall of the aircraft.
The incident arose over Ms Lauren having problems with her reclining seat.
The costs of the diversion to Delta Airlines totalled over $43,000 and Ms Lauren may yet face civil proceedings over her causing the breach of the peace.
This was hinted at in court by her solicitor, Sharon Curley who told the court that that Ms Lauren "does feel very responsible and very remorseful and she is aware that the element of compensation that is something she may have to face, possibly in another forum".
Ms Lauren arrived in Ireland on Monday off a Delta Airlines flight disorientated after being at the centre of the air-rage incident.
The single woman believed that she had landed in Spain thinking that she had returned to Barcelona leading to her to ask an arresting Garda: "Can you repeat that in English please?"
Though she spent her time in Clare home to the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren, Ms Lauren will have a skewed view of Ireland spending her first night here in the cells at Shannon Garda Station.
The image of the traditional Irish pub is marketed worldwide by our tourism agencies, but the first Irish pub that Ms Lauren stepped into was the Brian Boru pub in Ballina that turned out to be the makeshift sitting for Killaloe District Court for her first court appearance.
Ms Lauren has spoken in the past of the name Lauren being an albatross on her and it won’t have felt heavier than this week when her arrest and court appearance made headlines on both sides of the Atlantic.
