Ex-Toronto broadcaster guilty of air rage

ST. JOHN'S, Newfoundland, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- Former Toronto TV broadcaster Colleen Walsh was found guilty Wednesday of assaulting a fellow jetliner passenger after the flight was diverted.

Provincial Judge Greg Brown fined Walsh nearly $2,500 and put her on probation for a year. She also was ordered to remove "hurtful" comments she made on her Internet blog about the passenger she attacked and apologize to him in that same venue.

Walsh was found guilty of assault against a passenger and failing to obey flight crew instructions, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported. She was acquitted of causing a disturbance at the airport or causing mischief.

The charges arose from the 49-year-old Walsh's mid-flight attack on Stan Harrington, 67, last March aboard an Air Canada plane. Authorities said Walsh, a former host of a televised architecture program, became agitated when the flight from London to Toronto was diverted to St. John's, Newfoundland, and Labrador because of a medical emergency involving another passenger.

Walsh admitted she consumed wine during the flight. She also said she had not slept for 30 hours before the incident, was on hormone-replacement therapy and felt panicky. However, after the verdict, she said she accepted responsibility.

"I apologize for what I did. Never did I ever have any intention of this escalating to what it became," she said.