The Cranberries singer avoids jail after officer head-butting incident

The Cranberries lead singer, Dolores O'Riordan, has avoided a jail sentence in an incident where she created a disturbance on a plane flight and head-butted an officer who tried to detain her.

In November 2014, O'Riordan was on a flight from New York to Ireland when she got into an altercation with one of the flight attendants. Upon landing in Shannon, police attempted to take the singer into custody but she spit on them and fought, head-butting one of the officers. According to reports, the flight attendant was taken to a hospital for treatment of her injuries.

This past December, O'Riordan pleaded guilty to the charges and, while awaiting sentencing, the judge ordered her to write letters of apology to all involved.

Earlier today, a judge said it would be unfair to sentence O'Riordan to jail as she has no recollection of the incident and has, since, been diagnosed to be bi-polar. The judge stated that Dolores had a "very severe medical illness which completely inhibited her judgment" and added "Let me be utterly clear that the defendant is not being treated any differently than anyone else."

In addition, he ordered O'Riordan to donate 6,000 Euros ($6,600) to a charity that helps prisoners to prepare for their release from jail.

According to the BBC, Dolores said that she was "very positive about this coming year" adding that "I have a couple of albums coming out and I'm going to go back to work."

O'Riordan has been a member of the Cranberries since 1989, singing on all six of their studio albums. Over that time, they have had hits such as Linger (1993 / #8 / #4 Modern Rock), Zombie (1994 / #22 / #1 Modern Rock), Ode to the Family (1994 / #39 / #11 Modern Rock), Salvation (1996 / #21 / #1 Modern Rock) and Free to Decide (1996 / #22 / #8 Modern Rock). She has also released two solo albums.

VVN Music