Four men who sprayed tear gas inside a lift at Heathrow Airport to steal suitcases have been jailed. The attack at Terminal 3 left more than 20 people needing hospital treatment, with witnesses reporting coughing, choking and vomiting blood.
Attack on December 7
The men, wearing masks, used the spray in Terminal 3 at around 8am on December 7. The incident forced the terminal to close for hours while dozens were rushed to hospital.
The court heard that one woman who was sprayed in the face before her suitcase was taken was one of five of the 21 victims who needed medical treatment.
Sentences handed down
Tyrone Richards, 31, Anton Clarke-Butcher, 25, Omoneke Whyte, 31, and Denzel Eduardo, 29, pleaded guilty to affray at Isleworth Crown Court in June. Richards was jailed for 27 months, Whyte and Eduardo for 23 months, and Clarke-Butcher for 21 months.
Judge Kwame Inyundo said: "Individuals were targeted by you as a group and the violence used in the incident was serious and sustained."
Lift and cafe impact
In the lift where the four men used the spray were two women who had arrived from a flight from Johannesburg in South Africa, and two men who had met them at the airport. The defendants were prevented from entering by the group as "innocent parties ran away from the lift in some distress".
As the lift arrived on the ground floor, the gas was sprayed, which also caused "difficulties for people at a Caffè Nero nearby". A barista at the cafe said she started coughing and vomiting blood, telling the court she "felt fine one minute and then almost instantly unwell".
Stolen suitcases
The defendants followed the two women to an airport taxi forecourt where they made off with their suitcases, which were never recovered. One woman said she was "coughing and choking" after being sprayed with the CS gas at close range.
The judge said it became clear the four men "had a particular and determined interest" in the women's suitcases. "Your group followed and confronted the pair (of women) who tried to get a taxi," he said. "Your group threatened violence to them and took the suitcases from them."
A member of staff in Terminal 3 described the incident as "terrifying", saying she "felt dizzy and like I was going to pass out" and that a woman in a wheelchair she was helping "was struggling to breathe and using an inhaler". A mum who arrived from South Africa with her 14-month-old son said the youngster started to cough, telling the court: "I was immediately afraid for my baby's safety and my own safety".
Another witness, a man ordering a taxi from the airport's car park, said he saw "20 to 30 people" coughing after the incident while he was "struggling to breathe". Prosecutor Gary Rutter said he "could not say exactly what led to this incident", but "one may suspect what was going on", adding that the incident left "members of the public, coughing, vomiting, and some vomited blood".
Police arrested Richards at the airport while the other three were later identified and arrested separately. The court heard the "evidence is not clear as to who deployed the gas", but that each man accepted their involvement in the joint enterprise.
The lawyer for Eduardo, who has 12 previous convictions for 18 offences, said he would have "not agreed to take part in any activity involving such a substance" and that he expressed "deep remorse". Rushnay Sikander, representing Whyte, said he was "very remorseful", also telling the court that Whyte had a "traumatic childhood" which saw his father murdered when he was five and that he has been the victim of three separate stabbings. Shanda McAteer, representing Clarke-Butcher, who has 14 convictions for 31 offences, said he denied releasing the gas and "genuinely expresses remorse".
