Channel deaths: Ibrahima Bah continued crossing in deflating boat, jury told

Ibrahima Bah, sketched at a previous hearing, continued the crossing even after signs the boat was deflating, jurors heard

A teenager accused of killing four migrants carried on crossing the English Channel even after signs their boat was deflating, a court heard.

Ibrahima Bah, 19, piloted the vessel with 43 migrants on board even though it was designed to carry only 20 people, jurors were told.

He told police he had been threatened with death by those who had organised the crossing, the court heard.

The boat ran into trouble off the Kent coast in December last year.

Mr Bah denies four counts of manslaughter and another charge relating to the piloting of a boat.

Mr Bah, a migrant himself, did not have to pay for his crossing because he piloted the boat on 14 December 2022, his trial at Canterbury Crown Court heard.

Prosecutors told the jury Mr Bah had joked: "I will either take you there or kill you all."

Opening the Crown's case, prosecutor Duncan Atkinson KC said: "Not only was the boat very significantly overloaded, which itself created a very serious risk to the safety of those on board, but there was insufficient equipment on board, including insufficient lifejackets.

"As the pilot of a vessel carrying passengers, he owed each of them a duty of care, to ensure their safety and protect them from the overwhelming risk to their lives posed by an unchartered voyage in an unseaworthy boat across the open sea."

The trial was told a number of those on board heard sounds suggesting the inflatable was punctured. They described the boat as deflating, ripping or starting to fold up, jurors heard.

Despite these increasing and obvious problems, Mr Bah continued to head into UK waters, Mr Atkinson said.

'Serious risk of death'

At least four migrants drowned, although the exact number is not known, as it appears at least one migrant's body was not recovered, the court was told.

Mr Atkinson said: "He (Mr Bah) was aware that the boat was overcrowded, that it lacked safety equipment and as it took in water, that it was increasingly unseaworthy.

"It would have been abundantly clear that there was an obvious and serious risk of death to those on board.

"Such failure on his part for his passengers' safety, leading to the deaths of at least four of them, amounts to manslaughter by gross negligence."

Mr Bah told police he had been asked if he knew how to pilot a boat and he said he did, and he was then allowed to travel for free, the jury was told.

Mr Atkinson said: "He asserted that he had refused to do so when he learnt at the beach that the boat was not wooden, but he had been forced to go through with the agreement when he was assaulted and threatened with death by the agents."

One of the four who lost their lives was named as Hajratullah Ahmadi. The other identities of the three men were described as "unknown".

The fifth charge Mr Bah is facing is piloting a boat which facilitated the commission of a breach of UK immigration law by a non-UK national.

The trial is due to last for four weeks.

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