Take down: Former Judo champion one of two Brits charged with smuggling 18 Albanians to Kent
Cops question Robert Sitwell as first images of traffickers’ speedboat emerge
A FORMER judo champ is one of two Brits charged with people smuggling as the first picture emerged of a speedboat that allegedly carried 18 Albanians to the Kent coast.
Commonwealth gold medallist Robert Stilwell, 33, and pal Mark Stribling, 35, were seized on the stricken vessel.
The pair appeared before magistrates yesterday as officials from the UK’s Border Force continued to quiz the migrants.
Stilwell won gold at the age of 17 at the Commonwealth Judo Championships in Canada in 2000.
A close family member told The Sun: “I’ve not seen him since Wednesday. I’ve been in tears thinking something bad had happened to him.
“I knew something was up. I’m in bits and then I read what happened on the news. I knew nothing about it at all. He used to do judo but he’s packed it in now.”
Speaking outside the family house in Dartford, Kent, Stilwell’s dad Robert Snr said: “He spends most of the time living in London with his girlfriend. I don’t know what he gets up to. We’re trying to work out what he’s done.”
Pictures emerged last night showing the white rigid inflatable that ferried the Albanian migrants, including a woman and two children, to England.
Some on board raised the alarm in the early hours of Sunday by calling relatives in Calais after the boat started taking on water off Dymchurch.
The vessel was towed to Dover after the Coastguard and Border Force raced to the scene at 2am.
Another rigid inflatable was later found beached at Dymchurch, sparking speculation a second group of migrants may have made it ashore undetected.
Dom Hanson, 21, of Customs at Channel Ports, told how migrants were hauled out of the water on Saturday night.
He said: “The boat crashed, it actually went into the rocks and turned over. The boat was beached and full of water.”
Police say gangs are increasingly ferrying migrants across the Channel to small harbours.
We tightened security massively to stop people climbing into lorries and under cars, all those resources were thrown into the Channel ports, into Calais, into Dunkirk
Lucy Moreton
Last night, ministers were accused of ignoring at least four warnings — one just last week — about the lax security at Britain’s small ports.
In January the Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration warned of the threat from an “unprecedented” number of small craft.
But the Government dismissed the fears as “not significant”. Labour MP Keith Vaz told The Times: “The Government has been very, very lax.”
Former Border Force chief inspector John Vine also said he raised concerns with the Home Office of the increased threat to Britain’s coastline five years ago — but was told it was a “low priority”.
There are just two Border Force cutters patrolling the UK’s 7,700-mile coastline.
Lucy Moreton, of the Immigration Services Union, claimed Border Force teams focus on larger airports and cross-Channel rail routes.
She added: “Wherever we tighten security in one place there will be another vulnerability.
“We tightened security massively to stop people climbing into lorries and under cars, all those resources were thrown into the Channel ports, into Calais, into Dunkirk.”
Kent county council now cares for 860 unaccompanied asylum-seeking kids, compared to 370 last March.
A spokesman said a 16 and 17-year-old have been taken in following Sunday morning’s incident.
Stilwell, of Dartford, and Stribling, from Farningham, Kent, have been charged with conspiring to facilitate the entry of non-EU nationals. They were remanded in custody to appear in court on June 27.
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