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 tear 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.”
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.
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.
“Your group threatened violence to them and took the suitcases from them.”
CS gas, which is used by police forces worldwide as tear gas to temporarily incapacitate people, 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.
Passengers leaving and travelling to the airport faced significant disruption, including delays to shuttle buses and trains, when Terminal 3 was locked down after the incident.
A customer service agent at Terminal 3 described the incident as “terrifying”, adding she “felt dizzy and like I was going to pass out” and that a woman in a wheelchair she was assisting “was struggling to breathe and using an inhaler”.
One passenger who arrived from South Africa on an overnight flight with her 14-month-old son said she feared for her child’s safety, the court heard.
Richards, who appeared by video link from HMP Wayland in Norfolk, was jailed for 27 months.
White and Eduardo, who were at HMP Wormwood Scrubs on video link, were each jailed for 23 months and Clarke-Butcher, who was at the same prison, was sentenced to 21 months’ imprisonment.
