He would say 'Daddy just needs to see Mummy and the kids'. [55] He faced 39 charges of manslaughter as well as immigration offences. "I am receiving regular updates from the Home Office & will work closely with Essex Police as we establish exactly what has happened. These are the first photographs of the lorry where 39 bodies were discovered today. What led to her and 38 fellow Vietnamese nationals dying in the dark and sweltering heat of an airtight container? Each of them had climbed inside the lorry - emblazoned with the words "the ultimate dream" - in search of a new life, that would actually lead them to their deaths. Eamonn Harrison, who delivered the trailer to Zeebrugge was sentenced to 18 years. He said the victims died in an "unimaginable way, because of the utter greed of these criminals". I cannot take care of you. They had all paid huge sums of money to reach Britain in search of a better life - paying up to 13,000 each. Later, before the trailer was loaded on to a ferry, the driver had opened the doors and told them to "keep quiet all the time" and stand in the middle of the trailer and hold on to each other. Maurice Robinson, 26, the lorry driver from Northern Ireland who collected the container containing the 39 people from the port in Essex in October 2019, and also pleaded guilty last year to . Recordings from some of the victims' final desperate phone messages were played aloud in court. Each passenger paid smugglers between 10,000 and 13,000 to be brought from northern France. "He told me that he would only go on a 'VIP package', in a private car," she said. Mr Justice Sweeney told the defendants jailed for manslaughter they would serve two-thirds of the term in custody, instead of the usual half. ". [100] The deputy chair of the Can Lc District, had reportedly been told by officials that the Vietnamese government offered to only pay the costs of bringing the bodies "home from the airport" and would pay in advance on behalf of the families only if the families would later pay them back. They had each paid about 13,000 to be smuggled into the UK and had desperately tried to raise the alarm as they suffocated inside the pitch-black refrigerated unit, which had been switched off. On 23 October 2019, the bodies of 39 Vietnamese people 31 men and 8 women were found in the trailer of an articulated refrigerator lorry in Grays, Essex, United Kingdom. Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. On 23 October 2019 we were called to a scene that no officer could ever have prepared for. Parents of one of the youngest victims, Nguyen Huy Hung, who was 15 when he died, paid tribute to their peaceful and smart son. ", Video evidence showed how the trainer containing 39 Vietnamese migrants made its way to the UK. "We wouldn't transport animals in that way.". What she was seeing was a people-smuggling operation run by the same gang responsible for the 39 deaths. RM GA0448 - A police officer at the scene of a shooting at Rayleigh railway station in Essex, after a member of the public was shot armed robbers today. He was also a good player. The four defendants charged with manslaughter all said they had not intended harm to the victims, but the judge noted that the conspiracy was committed for financial gain. [65], On 25 November 2019, Maurice Robinson pleaded guilty in the Central Criminal Court to conspiring with others to assist illegal immigration and acquiring criminal property. a recent documentary into the deaths revealed. Det Ch Insp Daniel Stoten said: "May this serve as a warning to those who think it's OK to prey on the vulnerabilities of migrants and their families, transporting them in a way worse than we would transport animals. Robinson gave a thumbs-up in reply. Investigations revealed that they suffocated to death in 38 degrees in the refrigerated container, where all the oxygen was sucked out. The chief constable of Essex police, Ben-Julian Harrington, said this was the biggest operation in his forces history. "The day he left it was 6th September. "Many people around here go overseas to find work. Eamonn Harrison, a lorry driver from Northern Ireland, who dropped the trailer off at Zebrugge, and Gheorghe Nica, the coordinator of the smuggling operation, from Romania, were found guilty of manslaughter. [63], On 17 June 2021 a Vietnamese man who is being sought by Belgian authorities for extradition in connection with the deaths was arrested at a supermarket petrol station in Middlesbrough. Someone said he should go to the UK. Det Ch Insp Daniel Stoten, of Essex Police, said: "They are callous and they are dangerous and they are out to exploit these people. [69] Counsel for the Minister for Justice, Ronan Kennedy SC disagreed, calling the claim of extraterritoriality a red herring and that the court should not engage in a "fanciful debate" as to whether other states had jurisdiction to try these offences. RM 2B4WWCW - Southend, Essex, UK. [7][10][11], The Zeebrugge port chairman said it was "highly unlikely" the migrants entered the trailer there, and that breaking the seal, loading 39 people and resealing the trailer without being noticed would be "virtually impossible". Northern Irish lorry driver, Christopher Kennedy, 24, and Valentin Calota, 38, a pickup driver from Romania, were both convicted of conspiring to smuggle people into the country unlawfully. [55] On 29 April 2020 he appeared before the High Court via videolink, during which he was described as the "ringleader" of a criminal gang. [21] The family of a 26-year-old Vietnamese woman made public her last text message to her parents which she sent as she was dying;[22] her family said they paid around 30,000 to smuggle their daughter from Vietnam to the UK. This was when the victims were still believed to be of Chinese origin. [38] After extended questioning, on 26 October Essex Police charged the driver they had arrested with 39 counts of manslaughter, conspiracy to traffic people, conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and money laundering. Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk, Lorry container 'became a tomb' for 39 victims, Essex lorry deaths driver admits manslaughter. In his evidence, Nica said Robinson told him: "I have a problem here - dead bodies in the trailer.". From this point onwards, a sensor inside the trailer tells its own story of a relentless rise in temperature. Alexandru Hanga, 28, who performed a similar role on one occasion in October 2019, and who last year pleaded guilty to conspiracy to assist unlawful migration, was sentenced to three years in prison. Robinson, Harrison, Hughes and Nica were all jailed for manslaughter in January this year, receiving jail sentences of up to 27 years. Essex lorry deaths: Men jailed for killing 39 migrants in trailer 22 January 2021 Essex lorry deaths The 39 people who died in the back of a trailer as it crossed the North Sea between. Det Ch Insp Stoten said: "This crime group have been stopped on many, many, occasions in Europe and the UK - and they continued. A teenager's body was among the 39 discovered in the HGV at around 1.40am. In the weeks before the tragic journey, the gang, led by Hughes and Nica, organised at least two other journeys smuggling Vietnamese migrants packed into the back of lorries into the UK. While the county came to terms with the tragedy on our doorstep, Essex Police launched the largest investigation in its history to bring down members of the international smuggling operation responsible for their deaths. Witness X described how he was ushered on to the back of the trailer at a rendezvous point in northern France. During the voyage, the temperature rose from the high 20s all the way up to 38.5C (101F), by which point the air was too toxic for human life. Our enquiries are ongoing to establish what has happened. Update: Essex police have confirmed that no further action will be taken against Christopher Hughes. [99], Families of those who died told reporters that they had been told that neither the British nor Vietnamese governments were willing to cover the cost of repatriating the bodies back to their homes. That call between Robinson and Hughes then triggered a flurry of further communications between other men involved in the trafficking operation. The trailer's jammed. A similar run was stopped at the mouth of the Eurotunnel at Coquelles in France on 14 October, when 20 Vietnamese migrants were discovered. Families were worried they could still be left in debt, despite over 84,000 having been raised to help them. Something went wrong, please try again later. [80], Two lorry drivers who were also involved in the incident were also jailed. Who was Ukrainian minister Denys Monastyrsky? They're all lying on the ground. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Officers discovered a metal post on the lorry floor. A father of one of the deceased said he was given two options: having the ashes returned for 41,100,000 Vietnam dong (1,470) or receiving the body for 66,240,000 Vietnam dong (2,209). [56] His solicitor applied for bail and the prosecution opposed it. [41], On 26 October, the Irish police said they had detained a man in his 20s at Dublin Port who was of interest to Essex Police as part of its investigation into the lorry deaths. [87], Channel 4 postponed a television series called Smuggled that was due to air on 28 October, in which British citizens try to smuggle themselves from mainland Europe to the UK. Ronan Hughes, 41, and Gheorghe Nica, 43, played "leading roles" in the smuggling conspiracy and were jailed for 20 and 27 years respectively. They were left to die, all because of the greed of the men who have been sentenced today., The home secretary, Priti Patel, said: The inhumanity of these callous people smugglers and their dangerous organised criminal networks has rightly been reflected in the sentencing today.. Robinson, of Craigavon, County Armagh, returned to his cab before driving off and making his first call to Hughes. A 25-year-old lorry driver from Northern Ireland has been arrested, Essex Police says. Additionally, money was donated by Vingroup, and other Vietnamese associations across Europe. [33], On 24 October, the Evening Standard speculated that the trailer had travelled from the Netherlands before its departure from Belgium. One of the biggest murder probes in British history is launched after the horrific discovery at Waterglade Industrial Park in Grays. The lorry cab, a Scania R-series, was registered in Bulgaria in 2017 in the name of a company owned by an Irish citizen, but had not returned there since, according to the Bulgarian foreign ministry. The trailer had been shipped from the port of Zeebrugge, Belgium, to Purfleet, Essex, UK, and the lorry cab and its driver are believed to have originated from Northern Ireland. By the end of the trial, the gang involved in the deadly people-smuggling operation were brought to justice. The man is accused of "conspiring to smuggle non-EU nationals into the UK, contrary to immigration law, between 1 May 2018 and 24 October 2019. He had seen a friend's Facebook post showing that they had made it to London. [59] The police operation was organised with a cross-border team organised by Eurojust that included Belgium, France, the UK and Ireland. Thwarted in France, he said, the smugglers were possibly attempting to "do two loads in one". It was a shock, like anybody would be shocked to see this, particularly down a lane people would not know," Ms Andrews told the Old Bailey. We were struggling to give our children a proper education. "We are in the process of identifying the victims, however I anticipate that this could be a lengthy process. mike gibbins cause of death; is neil norman any relation to barry norman; new fairfield first selectman salary; hershey red azalea care; spring boot rest api return list of objects; peter and philippa mitchell; skagit valley park ranger academy; recent arrests in torrington, ct; least intelligent celebrities; saenz v roe strict scrutiny This means that we may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. Shortly after 01:00, having picked up the trailer, Robinson got a SnapChat message from Ronan Hughes, his 40-year-old haulage boss from County Monaghan, Ireland. I want to come back to my family. A screengrab of Maurice Robinson leaving Purfleet port. [18], On 11 February 2020, Essex Police said that post-mortems gave a combination of hypoxia and hyperthermia as the provisional causes of death. Police ensured they were taken to the mortuary, and then had their post-mortem examinations carried out, together. They leave behind two children in Vietnam. On 23 November, it was reported that one of the teenagers later found dead had gone missing from an asylum centre in the Netherlands. 2023 BBC. Maurice Robinson, who collected the trailer from Purfleet and discovered the dead bodies, was sentenced to 13 years and 4 months. Murder detectives try to identify 38 adults and teenager thought to have come in trailer from Belgium. He was charged with unrelated offences. Pic: Essex Police, Police and forensics at the crime scene in Grays, Essex, in October 2019, Lorry driver Maurice Robinson is seen leaving Purfleet port in Essex after collecting the trailer containing the migrants, Gheorghe Nica pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of the migrants. Matthew Long, deputy director of National Crime Agency, said the whole idea of some kind of special service was a con. [24][25] By 7 November, all of the deceased had been formally identified. [43] Two days later, the prosecutor said that the lorry driver pretended that the trailer was filled with cookies and biscuits. They were found on the floor of the trailer holding hands. "They loaded too many people into a single trailer the people smugglers were under pressure to double up. In a tweet published shortly before 10.30am Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "Im appalled by this tragic incident in Essex. "I immediately recognised this cab and trailer on the news as certainly being the same one that I had seen on both 11 October and 18 October, 2019," she said. It was a discovery that would hurl Essex into the international spotlight as police, press and forensics descended on the industrial estate that had become the scene of a devastating mass grave. [85], Extra UK immigration officers are to be deployed at the Belgian border port of Zeebrugge and more Border Force staff will operate at Purfleet as a result of the incident. [42] A Belgian public prosecutor said that this was the lorry driver they had been searching for, who had been seen on CCTV ten times at Zeebrugge while dropping off the refrigerated trailer. He was accused of "conspiracy to facilitate the commission of a breach of UK immigration law by a non-EU person". The risks taken by the crime group responsible for the deaths of 39 migrants found in a lorry container in Essex were 'sadly not unusual', a senior Immigration Enforcement official has said. [82], UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a tweet that he was "appalled" at the incident, giving his thoughts to the victims and their families, adding that the Home Office was working alongside Essex Police on the case. The trial exposed for the first time a complex and lucrative operation which has for years illegally brought Vietnamese people into the UK. The 39 people who died in the back of a trailer as it crossed the North Sea between Zeebrugge and the UK, [Left to right] Eamonn Harrison, Ronan Hughes, Gheorghe Nica and Maurice Robinson were all jailed for manslaughter, [Left to right] Valentin Calota, Alexandru-Ovidiu Hanga and Christopher Kennedy were also sentenced on Friday, The bodies of 39 Vietnamese nationals were discovered in a refrigerated trailer on 23 October 2019, After receiving this message from his boss, Robinson got out of his cab, opened the trailer door and discovered the bodies, The moment lorry driver Maurice Robinson opened the trailer door and discovered the bodies inside was captured on CCTV, Ronan Hughes (left) met Gheorghe Nica at a budget hotel in Thurrock, Essex, learned of his son's death via social media, admitted his limited role in the people-smuggling operation, US porn star declared unfit for sex crimes trial, Jeremy Renner TV show poster edited after accident, Celebrities who say their children will get no inheritance, Germany: We are no longer reliant on Russian energy, City asks Madonna if it can borrow her painting, Keep cake away from office, says food adviser. 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