Gang who left Heathrow passengers vomiting blood after tear gas attack jailed

A masked gang who left Heathrow passengers vomiting blood after spraying tear gas while trying to steal suitcases from one of the airport’s car parks have been jailed.

Terminal 3 was closed for hours following the episode of ‘serious and sustained’ violence at around 8am on December 7 last year.

Tyrone Richards, 31, Anton Clarke-Butcher, 25, Omoneke Whyte, 31, and Denzel Eduardo, 29, targeted two women who had just arrived on a British Airways flight from Johannesburg in South Africa.

Three of them, wearing face coverings and dark clothing, sprayed CS gas into their faces and tried to follow them into a lift but were blocked by other passengers trying to flee.

The gas was then released from the lift when it hit the ground floor, injuring dozens more passengers, including many at the nearby Caffè Nero.

A barista, who started to cough and vomit blood, told the court she was ‘scared’ as she ‘felt fine one minute and then almost instantly unwell’.

A customer service agent at Terminal 3 said the incident was ‘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’.

A man who was ordering a taxi from the airport’s car park said ‘20 to 30 people were all coughing’ after the incident and he was ‘struggling to breathe’.

The women targeted by the four were then followed to an airport taxi forecourt where their suitcases were taken. They have never been 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.’

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.

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.

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