Jury shown stowaway box

A box which a stowaway thief allegedly used to try and steal £1.5m from a plane at Heathrow airport, was shown to a jury on Tuesday.

Jurors at the Old Bailey heard that Rawson Watson fell out of the box when loaders were lifting it out of the plane.

The 37-year-old then ran off but was arrested more than two years later, the court was told.

Mr Watson, of Marlborough Road, Gillingham, Kent, denies attempted theft and damaging a Boeing 767 plane in January, 2000.

Abandoned plan

He is accused of hiding in a hole cut in the lining of the plane's cargo hold as it made a return trip to Madrid.

Prosecuting Christopher Hehir said during the flight he got out of the hole to construct the wooden framed box in which he hid, along with a smaller cardboard box for the £1.5m in Spanish pesetas which had been loaded on board in Madrid.

He abandoned his plan when he realised he would not be able to reseal the cash containers but put one of them containing £200,000 in the smaller box.

Mr Hehir said he might have got away with hiding in the larger box if the top had not come off.

The box was one of 32 exhibits shown to the jury which included a battery drill and scissors.