REM guitarist 'turned into drunken lout' on BA flight

REM guitarist Peter Buck assaulted British Airways cabin staff aboard a transatlantic flight, a court has heard.

The 45-year-old allegedly ignored every effort to calm him down and was eventually served with a letter telling him to behave.

He was warned that if he did not the plane would be diverted and he could be taken off and prosecuted.

Buck promptly tore the notice into pieces under Captain Tom Payne's nose and told him what he could do with his "f---ing letter".

From that point his behaviour deteriorated even further, David Bate QC, prosecuting, told West London's Isleworth Crown Court.

"He went on to upturn a breakfast trolley, smashing the crockery inside.

"He then picked up a knife and tried to slip it up his sleeve before it was taken from him by one of the crew," the barrister claimed.

When told again by the captain to calm down he threatened to take BA to court for assaulting him, the jury was told.

"He said to the captain, 'I am REM and I can make up a story that I was assaulted'," said Mr Bate.

Buck denies one charge of being drunk on an aircraft, two counts of common assault and one charge of damaging British Airways crockery.