Home sweet home? Photograph: David Goddard/Getty Images
A homeless man has been taken into custody after refusing to stay away from Gatwick airport, where he had been living for about four years.
Anthony Delaney, an unemployed chef, was issued with an asbo in 2006 banning him from the airport and its train station until 2011, but ignored it.
"He started using the facilities at the airport out of sheer desperation, and has become trapped in a cycle of misfortune," his lawyer told a court yesterday.
Delaney's case echoed that of the world's most famous airport resident, Iranian-born Mehran Karimi Nasseri (also known as "Sir Alfred") who lived at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris for 18 years and inspired Steven Spielberg's film, The Terminal.
Nasseri was well known to airport staff, but rarely bothered other travellers - and eventually became a minor celebrity when the media found out about him.
Aren't the airport authorities being a bit harsh towards Delaney? Is it really better to keep him in custody at the taxpayers' expense? What's wrong with him using the free facilities provided for the public at Gatwick?
