Man fined for gratifying acts on a plane

Darwin: A man has been fined for exposing himself and masturbating in front of a woman on a Darwin-bound flight. Lucas Steven Knudson argued he was "just adjusting himself" because his jeans were too tight, a Darwin court heard yesterday, the Northern Territory News reports.

The Darwin Magistrates Court yesterday was told Knudson, 32, had just landed on board Virgin Blue flight DJ449 from Brisbane when he was escorted off the plane by Australian Federal Police after masturbating for "maybe four minutes" underneath his tray table in view of mother-of-two Simone Holt.

The court heard the man - wearing jeans, a flannelette shirt, white socks and thongs - told airport officers her story was "bull----".

But the two police officers who spoke to him after the midnight flight on April 11 said his jeans were not "overly tight".

After a two-hour hearing, magistrate Tanya Fong Lim found Knudson, from the northern NSW town of Ballina, guilty of committing an indecent act on the plane under the Commonwealth Crimes Aviation Act.

Ms Holt, from Kununurra in the northwest of WA, was emotional as she told the court she awoke about three hours into the flight to see Knudson masturbating.

The teacher's aide said she was seated on a window seat in row 11 with no one between her and Knudson in the aisle seat - and he was shielding his activity from other passengers and flight attendants on the other side with his shirt.

Ms Holt said she turned her reading light on to indicate she was awake and he "should cease" the act.

She said he did stop "somewhat" but left his genitals exposed outside of his jeans.

Ms Holt - who had to describe every detail of what she had seen in court - said she became anxious and signalled a flight attendant and asked to be moved.

Virgin Blue flight attendant Kelly Taylor said Ms Holt was "panicked" and breathless when staff tried to console her at the back of the plane.

She said Knudson had stretched out across all three seats to sleep with his fly undone.

On the witness stand, Knudson said he had undone his button and touched his genitals for a few seconds to make himself more comfortable.

To read more go to the Northern Territory News.