The security officers were idiots. Lets hope foolish act like this never ever gets repeated on anyone. So sad for all concerned. G4S deporting officers ‘ignored dying plea for air’ of Angolan Jimmy Mubenga Article Pictures Jimmy Mubenga with his wife: he was fit and healthy when he boarded the Jimmy Mubenga with his wife David Brown Published at 12:01AM, November 5 2014 Three custody officers killed a failed asylum seeker on a British Airways jet by pinning his head into a seat for up to 35 minutes, a court was told yesterday. Jimmy Mubenga was heard by other passengers to cry out repeatedly “I can’t breathe” as he was held by officers from G4S on the plane at Heathrow airport. By the time the cabin crew raised the alarm it was too late and he died of cardiac arrest. The officers, Terrence Hughes, 53, Colin Kaler, 52, and Stuart Tribelnig, 39, are charged with the manslaughter of Mr Mubenga. The court heard that the officers would only be paid for the hours that they worked even if a deportation was cancelled or not completed, and the round trip to Angola was expected to last 26 hours. A section of the Boeing 777 with three rows of three seats has been specially built inside Court 16 of the Old Bailey to show the jury how Mr Mubenga died. Mark Dennis, QC, for the prosecution, said that Mr Mubenga had been put on the flight to be deported to Angola in October 2010. He said: “Each officer would have known from their training and from common sense that keeping someone in such a position was likely to cause a person harm, yet they did so over a prolonged period. “They did so ignoring the repeated shouts from Mubenga that he was in trouble — ‘I can’t breathe’. Shouts that were heard by many a passenger seated further away.” The court heard Mr Mubenga was fit and healthy when he boarded the aircraft. Mr Dennis said: “He had been thoroughly co-operative with the officers and had shown no sign of any resistance to what was happening to him. A few minutes after boarding everything was to change. Mubenga and the three officers became embroiled in a commotion which escalated into a struggle as the officers tried to force Mr Mubenga into a row of seats and then into a seated position.” The officers used rigid handcuffs to bind his arms and hands behind his back and fix the seatbelt around his waist. Mr Dennis said: “Such physical restraint should have been enough to hold Mr Mubenga in the seat and, above all, to make [him] realise that there was no point in struggling further even if he had wanted to do so.” The prosecutor said that, despite being in an “excited state”, “there was little he could do but accept the situation and calm down because he was in such a confined space and bound from behind and strapped in his seat”. Mr Dennis said there had been an officer on each side of Mr Mubenga, with another leaning over from the seat ahead and, between them, they endeavoured to pin their prisoner into his seat. “In doing so, they held Mr Mubenga in such a position bent forward that his ability to breathe properly was inevitably impaired,” he told the court. When the cabin doors were secured and the plane pushed back to taxi towards the runway, Mr Mubenga was “staring open-eyed ahead of him”. Mr Dennis said the guards appeared to have assumed Mr Mubenga was feigning his condition and it was only when one of them realised that he was in a critical state that a medical emergency was declared. Mr Mubenga had been living in the UK for a number of years with his wife and children, the youngest of which was a few months old. Although tearful before his departure and upset by having to leave his family behind, he had acknowledged that he had to go back and was “resigned” to the situation, the court heard. Mr Hughes, Mr Kaler and Mr Tribelnig all deny the charges. The trial continues.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 06:40:49 +0000
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