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A drunken stag party have been jailed after subjecting holidaymakers to "eight hours of hell".

Stag Michael Ward, 33, travelled to Las Vegas from Manchester with his friends Scott Capper, 32, Craig Hopwood, 35, and Daniel Howarth, 35, on a Thomas Cook flight with more than 300 other passengers in March 2018.

The men, from Oldham, were all drunk when they boarded and continued to drink their own duty free alcohol on the plane, including vodka and rum, despite being told not to.

Manchester Crown Court heard one man even claimed to have a bomb in his bag.

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Cabin crew refused to serve them but they continued to drink from duty free, with five litres of alcohol being confiscated, reports the Manchester Evening News .

Their "dangerous, persistent drunken misbehaviour" got so bad the plane had to be diverted to Winnipeg and landed eight hours after leaving Manchester at 8am on March 24 last year.

The "hard working family men", as they were otherwise described, were warned before the plane took off and were arrested by Canadian police.

They were sent back to the UK the following day.

Ward, Capper and Hopwood were jailed for two years and Howarth for 19 months.

Judge Hilary Manley said the men showed "total contempt" towards cabin crew and other passengers.

A sentencing hearing heard holidaymakers were subjected to "appalling" language as the men screamed and shouted, threw water over each other and fought one another on the flight.

Ward pulled down Hopwood's shorts, and Howarth started doing press ups in the aisle.

Ward and Hopwood tried to lift up a flight attendant's skirt and one man touched a female flight attendant's bottom.

Ward was warned that if the bad behaviour continued the plane would be diverted to Canada and they'd would be arrested but he replied, "that's okay, I don't mind going to prison".

The stag claimed his behaviour with the others was "banter" and also said: "I f****** love Canada, bring it on."

He also told cabin crew "don't tell me what to do", bragged about being a "40k builder" and claimed the staff member was "lower down the food chain" than him.

One passenger watched on as the men slapped each other across the head, and as Hopwood, who another passenger said was the "worst behaved", smoked an e-cigarette.

Another holidaymaker described the ordeal as "eight hours of hell" and said one man called a flight attendant a "Scouse b****" after being refused a drink.

When one man fell asleep, one of the others would punch him and they would start fighting, prosecutor David Lees said.

As a female member of cabin crew went to sit down for a break, Hopwood stared at her and said: "I'm going to ruin your time like you've ruined ours".

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Hopwood and Howarth swigged from a bottle of rum while the cabin manager tried to perform the safety demonstrations.

Ward later told her: "No-one would marry you with a f****** face like that" and Capper told her she had a "fat a***".

Passengers and cabin crew told of the misery they faced during the flight in victim impact statements read to the court.

"What should have been a wonderful holiday was ruined," said one passenger.

Another said: "These men didn't give a damn how their behaviour affected me or anyone else."

"One of the worst bits was when the police came on. They had big guns," a third added.

The flight attendant whose bottom was touched said: "I couldn't quite believe what had happened. Nobody has the right to touch me when I am at work. It made me feel degraded."

Another member of the cabin crew said the men were "beyond reason" and "beyond drunk".

A cabin manager said it was the worst behaviour displayed by passengers in her 22 year career.

The diversion cost Thomas Cook around £35,000, as well as having to pay for new flights for inconvenienced passengers and for the return flights to the UK of the four defendants.

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The plane also had to dump 10,000kg of fuel to make the unscheduled stop and the total delay to passengers was two hours and 37 minutes.

In an interview with the police back in Manchester, Hopwood claimed that a stewardess was abusive to Ward and had said "who would marry you".

Capper claimed that the crew had "antagonised" the group by being "rude" to Ward.

The four defendants, who all had previous convictions, later pleaded guilty to the offences.

Ward, Capper and Hopwood all admitted counts of affray and being drunk on an aircraft, and Howarth pleaded guilty to a section 4 public order offence and being drunk on an aircraft.

Defending, Keith Harrison said father-of-two Ward, who went on to marry his partner the month after the flight, "apologises wholeheartedly" to all concerned.

He said Ward employed ten people in his building firm, and they would lose their jobs if he was sent to prison and Ward may lose his family home.

Bob Golinski, defending Hopwood, a father-of-two, described the defendant as "otherwise a thoroughly decent hard working family man" and said he was "deeply remorseful and ashamed" of his behaviour.

Richard Orme said Howarth, a father-of-one, was the "least aggressive and least offensive" of the four.

Mr Orme said Howarth was doing press ups to 'show off' to his friends as he had been training to compete in a boxing match to raise money for charity, in memory of his late father who died from lung cancer.

The defendant was '"deeply ashamed" of his "foolish moment of exhilaration", Mr Orme added.