Driver hit in custody
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by Robin Meczes • A British driver was beaten around the head and twice forced to strip naked during a prolonged interview by French police following the discovery of 18 illegal immigrants in his trailer last week.
David Fry of West Yorkshire-based Rays Transport (Bradford) was returning from Germany with a load of machine parts in a curtainsider and knew nothing about the immigrants until his trailer was routinely X-rayed as he boarded a Le Shuttle Freight service to Britain. He believes they got aboard while he slept overnight at Jabbeke in Belgium.
Fry says customs of questioned him about drugs and cash they said he would have received in payment for his cargo.
They refused to accept his protestations of innocence, even though they had strip-searched him and examined his wagon without finding any drugs or money. Fry was then taken to a police station, stripped again and thrown in a cell. French police interviewed him, still insisting he must have been paid.
Continuing to deny this, Fry was slapped about the head "10 or 12 times" during the three-to-four-hour interview.
Fry eventually made a written statement through an interpreter, after which he was released. He was denied food, drink and access to a phone throughout his eight-and-a-halfhour ordeal.
"They kept making out I'd done it for money," he says, "even though one of the immigrants had told them they'd got into the trailer while the driver was asleep."
The French Embassy in London says hauliers wishing to complain about treatment by French police or customs should contact them in writing, or talk to the British Consulate General in Lille; contact 0033 3 2012 82 72.