Court appearance for Frenchman charged after Gatwick evacuation
The trial date has been set for the man who was arrested and charged after Gatwick Airport’s North Terminal was evacuated the day after the Paris terror attacks.
Jerome Chauris, 41, of no fixed address, was charged with possession of an air rifle and a lock knife in the airport’s departures lounge.
The incident sparked a major security alert which saw the whole of the airport’s North Terminal evacuated and remained closed for six hours while a suspicious package was investigated.
Passengers and staff were taken to nearby hotels while bomb disposal experts were called and carried out a small controlled explosion as a precaution.
The alert was said to have cost £1.2 million in lost travel and disruption.
Chauris pleaded not guilty at Lewes Crown Court yesterday and a trial date has been set for April 11, 2016.

Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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