Three men who died in dinghy trying to cross Channel were ‘unlawfully killed’
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Coroner’s conclusion follows Ibrahima Bah’s conviction for gross negligence manslaughter over incident in 2022. Three men who died in a dinghy overfilled with people trying to cross the Channel that “literally fell apart at the seams” were unlawfully killed, a coroner has found.
The conclusion follows Ibrahima Bah’s conviction for gross negligence manslaughter in relation to four deaths in the incident in the Channel on 14 December 2022. He was also found guilty of facilitating unlawful entry to the UK. The senior coroner for Kent, Patricia Harding, on Wednesday recorded the conclusion at an inquest into the deaths of Mohamed Lamine Toure, from Guinea, 27, Moussa Kouyae, 18, also from Guinea and a third unnamed person. The two named men were students. The identities of Kouyae and Toure were publicly confirmed for the first time on Wednesday.
Their cause of death was recorded as drowning. A fourth victim, Hejratullah Ahmadi, 31, was not subject to the inquest as, unlike the other three, he was named as a victim during the criminal proceedings relating to Bah. The investigating police officer, DI Ross Gurden from Kent police, who gave evidence at the inquest, said one body had not been recovered from the dinghy and 39 survivors were rescued. He said the passengers were in the dinghy “of their own free will”.
