Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Mum-to-be ‘a decoy’ in migrant plot
A Mum-to-be who acted as “a decoy” during a bid to smuggle 12 Vietnamese migrants into Britain in a van has been jailed.
Mum-of-four Katy Bethel, 28, was six months pregnant when she and ex-boyfriend Aaron Harris, also 28, were stopped by border officials near Calais.
The two, from Gillingham, Kent, said they had a day on the beach but the 12 were found “distressed” in the back.
Judge Philip Statman told Bethel: “You were something of a decoy, because any Customs officer looking into your van would have seen you were heavily pregnant.”
Harris pleaded guilty and got five years at Maidstone crown court. Bethal, who was convicted, got two years, nine months.