Overview
- The attack began on 7 December when three masked men discharged a substance believed to be CS spray inside a lift at a Terminal 3 car park, spreading gas to the ground floor.
- Dozens of people were affected, with witnesses describing widespread coughing and some vomiting blood, and several people needing hospital treatment after exposure near a nearby Caffè Nero.
- The two women targeted had arrived from Johannesburg and were followed to a taxi forecourt where the group took their suitcases, which have not been recovered.
- All four defendants accepted joint‑enterprise liability but the court found the evidence unclear on which individual actually deployed the spray; sentences handed down on 16 September were 27 months for Tyrone Richards, 23 months each for Omoneke Whyte and Denzel Eduardo, and 21 months for Anton Clarke‑Butcher.
- The case raises questions about airport security and passenger safety because CS is a common riot-control chemical that causes acute respiratory distress in enclosed spaces and the incident led to an hours-long Terminal 3 lockdown and wider travel disruption.