S Poddar
Former Page 3 icon and Celebrity Big Brother star Samantha Fox has been at the centre of a legal storm following an altercation with police after a drunken incident on a British Airways flight. The incident disrupted a flight from London to Hamburg last December, and the plane was unable to leave as scheduled.
During a hearing at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court, it became clear that Fox, 58, had threatened PC Ashley Smith, saying: “I know where you live,” and also threatening to knock his teeth out. He earlier pleaded guilty to a charge of being drunk and disorderly at Heathrow Airport on 3 December 2023 and to a second count of using threatening behavior which caused harassment, alarm or distress to the constable.
When the incident occurred, flight personnel were alerted to Fox’s suspicious behavior as she was arguing with gate personnel. Witnesses say she was walking and acting strangely, her words were slurred, and a strong smell of alcohol emanated from her. Once onboard, she became even more aggressive. She became aggressive towards her wife, Linda Olsen, and started rocking back and forth in her seat. She even started to bang her head against the front seat. This is what led to the plane turning the aircraft around to head back toward the gate.
The police were called during the flight to have Fox removed from the plane, said prosecutor Julianna Belinfante. PC Smith said the officers on the ground found Fox “rude and argumentative”, at which point she began to direct verbal abuse towards him in reference to her finding out where he and his family lived and threatening him.
The ten-year veteran officer said the verbal abuse “was relentless and often vile,” and continued for over two hours. He said, in a witness statement, Fox lunged at him, kicking her leg in his direction as she continued to verbally abuse him.
Fox, who showed remorse while in custody, relating that the flight was bound for a charity event in Germany, apologized for the delay of the flight, containing 162 adults and four children, by 12 hours, which made British Airways lose some money. The airline lost £1,718 with claims of compensation from 42 passengers.
At the hearing, Fox’s lawyer, Alastair Smith, disclosed she had been fighting depression and ADHD of late. The lawyer said Fox bought two drinks at the airport to calm her nerves but was patently unfit to fly. He conceded she should have called off her engagements but said she never would do that sort of thing, and as a result, the events of that night in December unfolded the way they did.
Fox, 53, today sat in the dock in a white shirt and trousers and was bailed until sentencing. She had denied a charge of assaulting her wife, and the prosecution dropped it because it was unlikely to secure a conviction after changes in the evidence. The entire affair has raised many questions about how a star who seemed to have everything going so right could end up in such a mess.
