A raging passenger assaulted a cabin crew member on an EasyJet flight as it flew from Glasgow to Alicante.

Colin Coats had been segregated to the rear of the plane after an earlier incident in which a fellow passenger was punched on the face, a court heard.

When he learned that police had been summoned to board the aircraft on its arrival, he leaned forward and whispered into the steward's face, saying that if police came on board he would kill him.

Minutes later, as officers entered the cabin, Coats kicked the steward George Barron's legs, began clawing at his face and neck and striking him on the back. Police had to pin him horizontally at the back of the cabin to try and force him to calm down.

He also shouted abuse at a woman steward and threatened to burn her house down. Coats also asked if she had children then said he would burn them too.

Paisley Sheriff Court heard how there was an air of fear onboard the aircraft as the drama unfolded.

Scared

Rosaleen O'Donnell, 39, told how she was crying and scared when Coats started the abuse.

She said: "My mother saw him with his arm around the steward in a grip and told him to leave him alone. He said he knew gangsters and would find out where I lived.

"He said he would burn me and burn members of my family too. He was angry and out of control. I was scared."

Steward Darren Donaldson said he intervened after the initial incident and saw the other passenger with a lump on his face the size of an egg.

Mr Donaldson said that Coats had been moved to the rear of the plane for others' safety and he tried to calm him down.

"He told me he had worked for Air Traffic Control," and "should have known better".

He added: "He seemed very angry. He was breathing deeply and shaking. He apologised then started a tirade of abuse towards other passengers.

"It was extremely violent. He said to one he would 'throw acid on your face' and said 'I'm Colin Coats. I'm a gangster, Do you know who I am?' "

Mr Donaldson said It was only when members of the Spanish Civil Guard boarded the plane to take over that he felt safe.

He said that Coat's girlfriend had been "desperate to come back to Glasgow for her own safety".

Coats, 40, of Crow Road, Glasgow, denied conducting himself in a disorderly manner, uttering threats of violence and committing a breach of the peace by placing others in a state of fear and alarm, and assaulting George Barron in the manner described.

He told the court he had no recollection of the flight and his first memory was of waking up in his Spanish villa one of two days later and being told of reports in the media that suggested he had acted in the manner described onboard the aircraft. It put me in a state of shock and disbelief," he said.

'Spiked' drink

A friend told the court Coats had bumped into him at a bar earlier. He said he passed him a glass of coke which he later believed had been spiked with acid, as the company he was with had been involved in "high jinks" that included drug taking.

He said he saw other drinks being laced with LSD at the table and when he later found out what had happened to Coats, he concluded that the soft drink he gave him must have been one of those.

Defence agent Siobhan Ramage asked Sheriff Neil Douglas to accept that her client could not have been responsible for his actions due to "automatism" through the drink being spiked.

The Sheriff rejected that describing the evidence produced as "incredible" and convicted Coats.

Sentence was deferred for background reports and a community service assessment as Coats had previously been placed on probation and made the subject of a Community Service Order at Glasgow Sheriff Court.

He was told to return to learn his fate on October 5.