Belgian officials said the eight women . Maurice Robinson, of Laurel Drive in Craigavon, Nothern Ireland, was arrested on suspicion of murder shortly after the bodies were found at the Waterglade Industrial Estate. 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. Speaking previously, Chief Superintendent Andrew Mariner, of Essex Police, said: "This is a tragic incident where a large number of people have lost their lives. [67], On 15 May 2020 Ronan Hughes, the man accused of being a ringleader, attended the High Court in Ireland by video link from Cloverhill Prison in Dublin. He had wanted to give his wife and three children a better life. Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. This became Witness X who shared his fears and referred to the smugglers as "the mafia" - a testimony that revealed the drivers had known about their passengers. ", Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Police were called at 5am. The trailer's jammed. 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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. Something went wrong, please try again later. On the morning of October 23, 2019, the bodies of 39 Vietnamese men, women and children were discovered dead in the back of a lorry in Grays, Essex. This was when the victims were still believed to be of Chinese origin. "It's hard to say whether that would change the outcome but we have changed nationally the way that we deal with organised immigration crimes.". Both men had made it as far as France - Tiep, via Russia, in 2017, and his older cousin a year later. [4][14], The ambulance service said that all 39 people were dead before it arrived, and attempts at resuscitation could not be made. The judge said Nica "recruited and paid the drivers whose job it was to collect the migrants when they reached the drop-off site in this country and to drive them to the safe house(s) where they were to be held until payment". Driver Maurice Robinson pulled his articulated lorry over on a largely deserted Essex industrial park. 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 manslaughter and people-smuggling, was sentenced to 13 years and four months. [97], After reports that Vietnamese citizens might be among the deceased, Nguyn Xun Phc, Vietnamese Prime Minister, ordered the country's Public Security Ministry and the authorities of its two central provinces of H Tnh and Ngh An, where a number of missing citizens come from, to launch a probe into the case. A port worker who drove the trailer off the ship later reported noticing a pungent smell that was "similar to waste". ", Justice Sweeney added: "The willingness of the victims to try and enter the country illegally provides no excuse for what happened to them.". [76], On 21 December 2020, verdicts were returned on Romanian ringleader Gheorghe Nica of Basildon and lorry driver Eamonn Harrison from County Down. Have a good life., In the background, a voice could be heard pleading: Come on everyone. [54] On 20 April 2020 a 40-year-old man was arrested in the Republic of Ireland in connection with the deaths. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. We use your sign-up to provide content in the ways you've consented to and improve our understanding of you. Robinson, from County Armagh, collected the trailer when it arrived on UK shores just after midnight on 23 October. The migrants died "excruciatingly painful" deaths, having suffocated in the container en route from Belgium to Purfleet in October 2019, a judge said. THE 39 migrants who died in the back of a lorry trailer in Essex left bloody handprints on the inside doors of the metal container, it has been reported. Harrison, of Newry, County Down, claimed he did not know there were people in the trailer when he towed it to the Belgian port, and that he watched "a wee bit of Netflix" in bed as they were loaded on. Matthew Long, deputy director of National Crime Agency, said the whole idea of some kind of special service was a con. 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 One of them was Gheorghe Nica. He saw what was inside and stepped back before closing the door. "He didn't go straight to the UK, he went to Germany first. "I can't breathe," he said. Post-mortem examinations found they died of overheating and a lack of oxygen. ", "Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying's Regular Press Conference on October 25, 2019", Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, "CNN slammed for rushing to attack China in report of UK lorry death", "China says identity of victims still being confirmed", "PM orders investigation into overseas trafficking of Vietnamese citizens", "Essex lorry deaths: Vietnam condemns 'human trafficking', "Vietnam offers loans to families to return bodies", "Vietnam offers grieving families loans to return bodies", "Fundraisers help send Vietnam's lorry dead home", "Essex lorry deaths: All victims' bodies back in Vietnam", Young Vietnamese workers risking life and death on 'the line' to Europe, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Essex_lorry_deaths&oldid=1120801721, October 2019 events in the United Kingdom, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 8 November 2022, at 22:09. "They loaded too many people into a single trailer the people smugglers were under pressure to double up. Early indications suggest the victims are 38 adults and one teenager. Most of the migrants are believed to have boarded the lorry container in northern France before it was driven to Zeebrugge and loaded on to a cargo ship bound for Purfleet on 22 October 2019. The journey of 23 October and the earlier failed run on 14 October were connected, said Bill Emlyn Jones, who prosecuted the case. All you have to do is to click here and type in your email address. "On that boat in the night, there was no-one to hear them and no-one to help them. A teenager's body was among the 39 discovered in the HGV at around 1.40am. Read about our approach to external linking. Every person in that trailer had left behind a family. (From left) Gheorghe Nica and Ronan Hughes were jailed for a total of 47 years, while Eamonn Harrison was sentenced to 18 years. [66] He was remanded in custody until 13 December when he appeared in court, via a video link from Belmarsh Prison in London where he was being held until his trial. "The day he left it was 6th September. Read about our approach to external linking. Three others members of the people-smuggling gang were also sentenced for conspiracy to facilitate unlawful immigration. Christopher Kennedy, 24, from County Armagh, was jailed for seven years; Valentin Calota, 38, of Birmingham, for four-and-a-half years; and Alexandru-Ovidiu Hanga, 28, of Hobart Road, Tilbury, Essex, was given a three-year sentence. Open up, open up., Another father, Nguyen Tho Tuan, recorded a spoken message for his own family saying: "I am sorry. Robinson, Harrison, Hughes and Nica were all jailed for manslaughter in January this year, receiving jail sentences of up to 27 years. Temperatures in the unit had reached an "unbearable" 38.5C (101F) as the migrants were sealed inside for at least 12 hours, the court heard. My thoughts are with all those who lost their lives & their loved ones.". [48], On 4 March 2020, a man from Essex was charged with an immigration offence related to the deaths. He was later arrested in Germany. Many travelled to other countries in Europe, such as Poland and Russia, before being drawn by the prospect of finding better-paid work in the UK, a lure that saw them move west to France or Belgium before crossing the North Sea. From the French capital, they had made their way to a town called Bierne, in northern France. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. [56] His solicitor applied for bail and the prosecution opposed it. It is seen beside a white police tent in the aerial shots. [88] The first part was broadcast on 4 November after re-editing in the light of the 39 deaths, despite the Home Office describing the timing as "both insensitive and irresponsible". Essex lorry deaths: The supposed 'VIP' journey that killed 39 people 21 December 2020 Essex lorry deaths Pham Thi Ngoc Oanh, 28, from Nghe An, wrote a text message that was never sent By. Nica claimed he told Robinson not to move the trailer and to call 999. A week later, she saw the same red-cabbed lorry in front of her home, near the village golf club, during yet another smuggling run. Thurrock deaths: Aerial footage of lorry container in Essex where 39 bodies have been found. In the CNN report, this question was described to be "about the possibility of Chinese citizens being illegally trafficked" and "was rebuffed by the spokesperson". "I could visibly see numerous half-naked bodies in the back of the trailer, lying on the trailer floor motionless," he said. Video evidence showed how the trainer containing 39 Vietnamese migrants made its way to the UK. Sign up to the EssexLive newsletter below for the latest news straight to your inbox: If you're looking for a way to stay up-to-date with the latest breaking news from around Essex, the EssexLive newsletter is a good place to start. Signing up to the newsletter is simple. He was charged with 41 offences, including 39 of manslaughter, and extradition proceedings began in the Irish High Court. [94][95][96] But he couldn't find work in Germany. 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. [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. Read about our approach to external linking. Murder detectives try to identify 38 adults and teenager thought to have come in trailer from Belgium. As always you can unsubscribe at any time. 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. This article does contains many crime scene photos, as well as the group's strangely joyful exit interview video which was shot just before their deaths, Applewhite's final video, a house tour while the bodies were still inside, and an interview with a surviving member who does show a video of the cult going about their daily routines. Each passenger paid smugglers between 10,000 and 13,000 to be brought from northern France. Lorry driver Eamonn Harrison, 24, also from Northern Ireland, who collected the migrants in northern France and drove the container to Zeebrugge, was found guilty of people-smuggling and 39 counts of manslaughter in December. Sense of injustice lingers after Seoul Halloween crush, Chess gets a risqu makeover. 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. [46][47] In February 2020, the man was given leave to appeal the extradition judgment. He waited 20 minutes before calling emergency services. He added at the top of the conspiracy was a Vietnamese man called "Fong", who was based in London. [14] The investigation was the "largest mass fatality victim identification" investigation in the history of Essex Police. [86], Campaigners against human trafficking organised a vigil to take place outside the Home Office on 24 October in solidarity with the casualties. A man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after being convicted in a Belgian court of being the ringleader in the trafficking of 39 migrants whose bodies were found inside a lorry in the UK. [59] Thirteen people were arrested in France. Five people were found not guilty. 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