Luke McCaghey convicted after indecent assault of Qantas flight attendant

Luke McCaghey, 41, faced the ACT Magistrates Court on Wednesday after pleading guilty to an act of indecency without consent.

"I saw that. I saw him touch you," another passenger said to the female victim after the offender touched her left buttock and tapped it twice.

The incident in question took place on a flight bound for Canberra, leaving Sydney in the early evening of September 9, 2022.

Court documents state that Qantas staff were made aware of McGaghey as the flight took off when the passenger sitting beside him complained the offender was "agitated and intoxicated".

The court heard on Wednesday McGaghey, who later claimed not to remember the incident, had consumed about five or six whiskeys.

The victim offered to switch seats with the complaining passenger, who later told police the offender was engaging in "disconcerting" conversation, was intentionally touching him and had taken the man's photo.

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The woman said she felt immediately uncomfortable sitting next to McGaghey, who was staring at her and attempting to look at her phone.

"[McGaghey] leaned into her and she could feel the heat of his breath on her neck and could smell alcohol," court documents state.

As the plane landed, the offender then tried to take the victim's photo.

The woman turned her head, pulled her hair to block her face and said: "Don't."

As she stood up in the aisle, the woman felt a hand touch her left buttock and tap it twice.

Another passenger who spoke to police said she had been on a previous flight from Hobart to Sydney with McGaghey a couple of hours earlier.

That woman said the offender had been talking loudly about "doing drugs and getting hookers" on that flight.

A prosecutor said the offending was "particularly brazen" and that the man smirking and winking at the woman added to the humiliation of the act.

"She clearly already attempted to rebuff him," she said.

Defence lawyer Satomi Hamon asked the court to record a non-conviction order for her client, who had no criminal history and who she said showed remorse and empathy.

Magistrate Jane Campbell said McGahey worked as a "risk practitioner" and had held several high-level employment positions.

They included supporting mental health workers, engaging in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse and helping create safer workplaces for health workers.

"He should be acutely aware of the risks of sexual assault and sexual harassment to fight attendants and in my view he should have known better," the magistrate said.

McGaghey was convicted and handed a 12 month good behaviour order.

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