Four jailed after tear gas incident at Heathrow car park left people vomiting blood

Four men have been jailed following an incident of violent disruption involving tear gas at a Heathrow Airport car park, which left victims vomiting blood and forced a hours-long terminal closure.

Tyrone Richards, 31, Anton Clarke-Butcher, 25, Omoneke Whyte, 31, and Denzel Eduardo, 29, were sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court after previously pleading guilty to affray.

Addressing the defendants 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."

The court heard that three masked men wearing dark clothing discharged a substance "believed to be CS spray" inside a lift at an airport car park at 8am on 7 December. The lift contained two women who had arrived on a British Airways flight from Johannesburg in South Africa and two men who met them at the airport.

Although the "evidence is not clear as to who deployed the gas", all four men accepted involvement under 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 emitted from the lift spread to the ground floor, causing severe health difficulties "particularly at a Caffè Nero nearby" and sending several people to hospital. A barista at the coffee shop told the court she felt "scared" when she suddenly began coughing and vomiting blood, adding that she "felt fine one minute and then almost instantly unwell".

The defendants subsequently followed the two women to a taxi forecourt to steal their suitcases, which have never been recovered. The judge noted that the group displayed "a particular and determined interest" in the luggage.

Judge Inyundo told the men: "Your group followed and confronted the pair (of women) who tried to get a taxi," adding: "Your group threatened violence to them and took the suitcases from them."

During the confrontation at 8.03am, CS gas was sprayed directly into one woman's face at close range, "causing her to start coughing and choking".

The incident caused significant travel disruption across the airport, including delays to shuttle buses and trains, as Terminal 3 was placed in lockdown. A customer service agent described the event as "terrifying", stating she "felt dizzy and like I was going to pass out" while assisting a woman in a wheelchair who "was struggling to breathe and using an inhaler". Another passenger arriving from South Africa said she feared for her 14-month-old son's safety.

Richards, appearing via video link from HMP Wayland in Norfolk, was jailed for 27 months. Whyte and Eduardo, appearing from HMP Wormwood Scrubs, were each jailed for 23 months, while Clarke-Butcher, at the same prison, received 21 months’ imprisonment.