Model faces 21 years in US jail
A PROMINENT model and Miss Australia finalist faces a possible 21 years in a US jail after drunkenly attacking an attendant on a flight from Melbourne to Los Angeles.
Adau Mornyang, 24, will be sentenced in June over the assault on the January flight, which a US air marshal described as “the most severe he has encountered in his 10 years” on the job.
New York-based Mornyang, who is from Victoria, is accused of slapping a steward in the face and kicking an air marshal in the chest after she was refused alcohol service aboard United Flight 99 on January 21.
She was found guilty after a trial in Los Angeles federal court of assault and interference with a flight attendant, but acquitted of assaulting the marshal.
Mornyang last night denied she had attacked anyone and described the episode as “an ordeal” that she did not remember after having mixed prescription drugs with alcohol to sleep during the flight.
“Even though passengers on that flight and other flight attendants said there was never a slap, the evidence was ignored and they decided to believe (the flight attendant),” she said in a text message.
“All I remember was waking up after sleeping for eight hours.”
The court heard other passengers complained when Mornyang started “yelling obscenities and racial slurs and flailing her arms” about nine hours into the flight.
Attendants said they cut her off after serving her five or six glasses of wine and spotting an empty bottle near where she was sitting in the middle of the plane. Mornyang disputes this and says she drank two glasses of wine and took prescription drugs before going to sleep.
The court heard attendants tried to move her to the back and Mornyang fought back, at
THIS WHOLE ALLEGED SLAPPING IS A BIG SHOCK TO ME AND I CRY EVERY NIGHT WONDERING WHY I HAVE NO MEMORY OF IT ADAU MORNYANG
one point stripping off some of her clothes.
Mornyang said: “I was in and out of consciousness, and was later locked up in federal prison still with no memory of what I was arrested for.
“This whole alleged slapping is a big shock to me and I cry every night wondering why I have no memory of it.
“How I could have done it while asleep.”
The Sudanese-born model has enjoyed significant modelling success since moving to Australia as a refugee at the age of 10, including serving as a global campaign face for Sephora in 2016, a Miss World Victorian finalist in 2017 and Miss World Australia finalist.