Migrant boat pilot in bid to appeal sentence

An asylum seeker convicted of manslaughter after piloting a boat across the Channel where four passengers drowned has made a bid to bring a challenge against his convictions and sentence at the Court of Appeal.

Ibrahima Bah was sentenced to nine and a half years' detention in February over the deaths of the migrants, who were on a dinghy he steered during an attempted crossing in December 2022.

A decision will be given in writing at a later date.

During a retrial at Canterbury Crown Court, Bah said smugglers threatened to kill him if he did not drive the boat but the prosecution said he was not telling the truth and he owed his fellow passengers a "duty of care" as their pilot.

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

The Senegalese national was also convicted of facilitating illegal entry to the UK.

At a hearing on Wednesday, Bah brought his case to the Court of Appeal in a bid for the green light to challenge his convictions and sentence.

His barrister Richard Thomas KC said the conviction could be challenged on several grounds including over an allegation of "jury irregularity" after a report was made about a juror talking to colleagues about the trial, though no action was taken by the Attorney General.

He later told the hearing in London: "This was, as the jury were told at the beginning of the trial, a trial touching on a highly politicised issue which gives rise to very strong feelings."

Bah's trial was told that the home-built, low-quality inflatable should have had no more than 20 people on board but carried about 45 people in the English Channel that night.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is opposing the appeal bid.

Duncan Atkinson KC, for the CPS, said: "This is a case where the passengers on the boat were acting in concert with their pilot."

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