Drunk Auckland Airport groper pleads guilty

The Perth man drank a bottle of vodka in the airport toilets before getting on the flight. File photo / NZ Herald

A Perth man who downed a bottle of vodka at Auckland Airport and touched the breast of a female passenger on his flight home has pleaded guilty.

Milinda Gunasekera, 32, has flown back from Australia a couple of times hoping to resolve the Manukau District Court matters but today, in his absence, guilty pleas were finally entered.

Originally accused of indecent assault and threatening to kill - offences carrying a maximum of seven years in jail - police refused to scale back the seriousness of the charges.

But after the file was reviewed by Crown law, the charges were finally amended.

Gunasekera's lawyer John Munro entered guilty pleas on his client's behalf to counts under the Summary Offences Act, which carry a jail term of up six months.

The West Australian resident had been flying home from a holiday in Chile on October 29 and was changing flights at Auckland Airport for the final leg of his trip.

But downing a bottle of vodka in the airport toilets derailed those plans.

The Qantas flight had been taxiing to the runway when the alleged incident happened.

Mr Munro said his client could not remember anything of it and the day after, the court heard the defendant was suffering "probably the worst hangover of his life" after spending the night in the cells.

"He's feeling really really embarrassed by what he did," he said.

Mr Munro said the man was extremely remorseful and would likely offer emotional harm reparation to the victim at sentencing.

Gunasekera is alleged to have touched the breast of the woman sitting in the seat in front of him but Mr Munro said he believed there was no sexual intent in the act.

Since the incident, he had accepted he was an alcoholic and attended a residential rehabilitation programme at his own cost, which lasted a few weeks.

Now Gunasekera was taking medicine which made him violently ill if he consumed any alcohol, Mr Munro said.

The lawyer said his client was now feeling much healthier and had not drunk since.

Gunasekera will fly back to New Zealand for the last time to be sentenced in June.