Ibrahima Bah: Pilot of migrant boat sentenced for Channel deaths

Ibrahima Bah was sentenced as if he was 20 years old, the judge said

A migrant who piloted a boat where four passengers drowned in the English Channel has been sentenced to nine years and six months.

Ibrahima Bah was convicted of manslaughter on Monday over the deaths of the migrants who were on a dingy he steered during an attempted crossing.

The judge sentenced Bah on the basis he is "about 20 years old".

Bah, whose exact age is in dispute, will serve two-thirds of his sentence in custody.

He will be detained in a Young Offenders Institution, until it is determined he has reached the age of 21, which is when he will be moved to adult custody.

The case is the first time a migrant who navigated an inflatable has been found responsible for harm caused to other occupants, the BBC's home and legal correspondent, Dominic Casciani, said.

The Senegalese migrant had claimed he was forced by violent smugglers to make the journey to the UK in December 2022.

Ibrahima Bah, circled, during the trawler rescue

Sentencing him at Canterbury Crown Court, the judge, Mr Justice Johnson, said the "primary responsibility" for the offences lay with people smugglers who had procured a "wholly unsafe and unsatisfactory" vessel.

He told Bah: "What happened is an utter tragedy for those who died and their families. This is also a tragedy for you - your dream of starting a new life in the UK is in tatters."

Bah was found guilty by the jury by a majority of 10 to two on four counts of gross negligence manslaughter, which the CPS describes as where a death is a result of a grossly negligent act or omission on the part of the defendant.

The jury also found Bah guilty of facilitating a breach of UK immigration law.

The judge said the boat was a "death trap" and that passengers were aware of the "obvious" risk but "freely and voluntarily embarked on the journey", but that Bah bore "high culpability" for the offences.

During a three-week retrial, jurors heard that Bah made the crossing in exchange for a free passage.

But Bah told the court he changed his mind about piloting the boat when he arrived at a beach and saw it was too small for the number of passengers.

The inflatable was not seaworthy, Bah's trial was told

The low-quality inflatable should not have held more than 20 people.

Bah claimed he was assaulted by smugglers and threatened with death if he did not take on the job.

The court heard that a number of migrants had described water reaching their knees within 30 minutes of leaving the French coast.

Duncan Atkinson KC, prosecuting, said because he piloted the dingy he owed his fellow passengers a "duty of care".

'Degree of coercion'

Mr Atkinson said Bah was not trained or licensed to lead the voyage and there was insufficient safety equipment such as life jackets and no flares or radio on board.

Judge Johnson said he accepted there was a "degree of coercion falling short of duress" and that Bah had "misgivings" about the boat.

Libby Clark, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said: "He could've turned back. That's what some of the migrants wanted to do.

"But Ibrahima Bah carried on. Those aren't really the actions of somebody who's acted under duress."

'Last to leave'

The court heard that a crew on a British fishing boat came across the sinking boat and tried to rescue the passengers, with help from the RNLI, air ambulance and UK Border Force.

Judge Johnson said: "[The dinghy] was grossly overcrowded [and] you were travelling across the busiest shipping lane in the world, on a cold winter's night."

He said he had taken account of Bah's actions after "disaster struck" on the journey in his sentencing, including keeping the dinghy alongside the fishing boat.

In a police interview, Bah told detectives that a close friend, who was 18-years-old, was among those who had died, although his body has not been formally identified.

The judge said Bah was "one of the last people to leave the dinghy" and helped others, including his friend who had "tragically died in front of your eyes".

A total of 39 survivors were brought to shore in Dover. The exact number of migrants who drowned is unknown, as it appears at least one person's body was believed to have not been recovered.

Three of the four bodies that were recovered after the boat sank, including Bah's friend, have not been identified.

One adult male was identified as 31-year-old Ahmadi Herjatullah. from Afghanistan who was married with a daughter who was six-years-old at the time of his death.

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