Four men have pleaded guilty to affray after a masked gang sprayed tear gas in a car park at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 3, leaving passengers and employees coughing and vomiting blood. More than 20 people were treated by paramedics, and five were rushed to hospital following the incident on December 7 last year.
Attack in the lift
Isleworth Crown Court heard that three of the defendants, wearing face coverings and dark clothing, sprayed a substance "believed to be CS spray" into a lift at the airport car park just after 8am. In the lift were two women who had arrived on a flight from Johannesburg, South Africa, that morning, and two men who had met them at the airport.
The court was told that innocent parties ran away from the lift in distress, and gas was emitted when the lift arrived at the ground floor, causing difficulties for people, particularly at a nearby Caffè Nero. A barista at the café, who started to cough and vomit blood, told the court she was "scared" as she "felt fine one minute and then almost instantly unwell".
Robbery and hospitalisations
The passengers who had arrived from Johannesburg then went to an airport taxi forecourt, where the defendants followed them and took their suitcases, which were never recovered. The gas was sprayed in the face of one of the women at close range at 8:03am, "causing her to start coughing and choking," the court heard.
The incident caused severe delays for passengers, including issues with shuttle buses and trains after Terminal 3 was locked down. A customer service agent described the incident as "terrifying", saying she "felt dizzy and like I was going to pass out". The employee also claimed that a woman in a wheelchair she was assisting "was struggling to breathe and using an inhaler".
Defendants and sentencing
Tyrone Richards, 31, Anton Clarke-Butcher, 25, Omoneke Whyte, 31, and Denzel Eduardo, 29, pleaded guilty to affray at Isleworth Crown Court in June. Prosecutor Gray Rutter said he "could not say exactly what led to this incident", but "one may suspect what was going". The incident left "members of the public coughing, vomiting, and some vomited blood," he added.
Richards was arrested while still at the airport, while the other three defendants were later identified and arrested separately. The court heard that Eduardo, who has 12 previous convictions for 18 offences, would have "not agreed to take part in any activity involving such a substance" and expressed "deep remorse". Whyte was said to be "very remorseful", having had a "traumatic childhood". Clarke-Butcher, who has 14 convictions for 31 offences, denied releasing the gas and "genuinely expresses remorse". Richards, who has three previous convictions, was "not present when the first spray was released" and was "sorry to innocent bystanders suffering anguish". The sentencing hearing continues.
