Four jailed over Heathrow tear gas attack 'that left people vomiting blood'
An emergency vehicle outside Heathrow Terminal 3 on December 7 PA Archive Michael Howie , Senior News Editor 1 minute ago Four men have been jailed after an incident of “serious and sustained” violence in which tear gas was sprayed at a Heathrow Airport car park , causing some people to vomit blood.
The airport’s Terminal 3 was closed for hours following the incident, when t ear gas was sprayed in the face of a woman who had her suitcase taken.
Tyrone Richards, 31; Anton Clarke-Butcher, 25; Omoneke Whyte, 31; and Denzel Eduardo, 29, previously pleaded guilty to affray at Isleworth Crown Court.
Sentencing the four on Wednesday, Judge Kwame Inyundo said: “Individuals were targeted by you as a group and the violence used in the incident was serious and sustained.”
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Three of the defendants, wearing face coverings and dark clothing, sprayed a substance “believed to be CS spray” into a lift at an airport car park at 8am on December 7.
The lift contained two women who had arrived on a British Airways flight from Johannesburg in South Africa that morning and two men who had met the women at the airport.
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.
Terminal 3 at Heathrow Airport after the tear gas incident Getty The defendants were prevented from entering the lift by the group as “innocent parties ran away from the lift in some distress”.
Gas was emitted once the lift arrived at the ground floor, causing “difficulties for people, particularly at a Caffè Nero nearby” with some people being taken to hospital, the court previously heard.
A barista at Caffè Nero, who started to cough and vomit blood, told the court she was “scared” as she “felt fine one minute and then almost instantly unwell”.
The women 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 judge said it became apparent that the group of 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,” Judge Inyundo said.
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