A man whose deportation to Jamaica was stopped by a last-minute mutiny on the plane had been jailed over a violent shootout on a Birmingham street, it has been revealed.
Passengers on a British Airways flight to Kingston on November 10 protested when they realised a man on board was being deported, as the aircraft was taxiing towards the runway.
Led by Cambridge graduate Hannah Gaffey, they raised concerns with cabin crew until the plane returned to the terminal at Gatwick and the man was led off.
The MailOnline has now identified the man as Lawrence Morgan, who was sentenced to five years in prison in 2021 for possessing a firearm following a gunfight in which he saw his friend ‘executed’ on a city street.
Morgan, 27, arrived in the UK as a child in the early 2000s, according to the newspaper.
In 2016, he was jailed for five years and eight months after police stopped him outside a Birmingham bookmakers and discovered cocaine, heroin and a loaded handgun inside his bag.
He was out on licence in August 2020 when he and his friend Naasir Francis, 22, were confronted by rival gang members on a street in the Lozells area of the city.
According to Birmingham Live, the pair initially fled the scene, but Morgan later returned on a bike and opened fire before riding away.
Mr Francis tried to hide in a Lexus, but 17-year-old Teeko Le shot him at close range while Darnell Donovan-Harris, 22, held the car door open.
At Birmingham Crown Court, Le was convicted of murder and attempted murder, and Donovan-Harris was found guilty of manslaughter.
A jury cleared Morgan of murder, attempted murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life – however, he had already admitted possessing a firearm, and was sentenced based on aggravating factors.
The delay to his deportation was furiously criticised by Home Secretary James Cleverly, who told the Mail on Sunday: ‘The vast majority of the British people think convicted, violent thugs should be deported.
‘My mission is to keep the British people safe. We must be able to remove offenders from our country without interference from misguided and ill-informed do-gooders.’
The deportation of people who arrived in the UK as children is a controversial subject, with some campaign groups arguing that people who grew up in Britain should face the consequences of their crimes in Britain.
In November 2020, the then-Jamaican high commissioner to the UK Seth Ramocan told the Guardian the country had quietly agreed a deal with the Home Office that ensured Jamaicans who came to Britain under the age of 12 would not be deported.
However, it was later reported that a number of people on deportation in the years following the alleged agreement fell into that category.
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