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An Irish trucker could face life behind bars after being convicted of the murder of 39 migrants.
The Vietnamese immigrants, aged 15 to 44, were found dead in the back of a trailer in Essex on October 23 last year. They had suffocated in sweltering temperatures when the airtight container was shipped from Zeebrugge to Purfleet.
Following a 10-week trial, Co Down truck driver Eamonn Harrison, 24, was convicted Monday of 39 counts of manslaughter. Gheorghe Nica (43), from Basildon, was also convicted of murder.
They were also convicted for their involvement in the human trafficking operation with truck driver Christopher Kennedy (24), from Co Armagh, and Valentin Calota, (38), from Birmingham.
The verdicts bring the total number of people convicted in Britain to eight, including trucking chief Ronan Hughes (41) of Co Armagh and 26-year-old truck driver Maurice Robinson of Craigavon who admitted murder.
Prosecutors are considering charges against three other people.
The maximum sentence for human trafficking is 14 years in prison with involuntary manslaughter with possible life in prison.
Essex Police Detective Chief Inspector Daniel Stoten said the gang was “greedy” but “complacent.”
He said, “You wouldn’t transport animals that way, but they were very happy to do it and it put them at significant risk.”
Kelly Matthews of the Crown Prosecution Service said: “Thirty-nine vulnerable people desperate for a new life put their trust in an unscrupulous network of human traffickers.
“Nothing can restore the lives lost that day or the losses caused by the horrible, illegal and dangerous actions of these defendants.
“But we hope these convictions provide some comfort to the families in knowing that justice has been served.”
The truck was found in an industrial estate 20 miles east of London in October last year. Photograph: Ben Stansall / AFP via Getty
The Old Bailey heard how the gang offered a “VIP” service to Vietnamese immigrants, who met in Belgium and France.
They charged around £ 13,000 a head to transport the migrants on a trailer through the Channel Tunnel or by boat to Essex.
The network, led by Nica and Hughes, had been operating for at least 18 months, despite repeatedly drawing the attention of authorities.
In May 2018, Harrison, the “man from the continent,” was fined after being captured in the Channel Tunnel in France with 18 Vietnamese immigrants in tow.
On October 11 last year, 15 people were shipped in a container that Harrison left in Zeebrugge and that was picked up by Kennedy in Purfleet.
They then boarded a fleet of vehicles in Orsett to transport them to Dulwich, where they were held by a Vietnamese man named Phong, whose job it was to receive payment, jurors heard.
Orsett resident Marie Andrews witnessed the fall and called police to report her concerns three times that day.
Three days later, Kennedy was detained by French border agents in the Channel Tunnel.
He was fired after 20 migrants were removed from his trailer, two of whom were among those killed on October 23.
On October 17 of last year, Harrison brought 15 migrants and a load of Bakewell macaroni and tarts to Zeebrugge.
Upon arrival, Kennedy left the human load on Orsett and later helped Hughes try to disguise the fact that the cookies had been trampled and crushed.
That night, Nica was caught on CCTV with Hughes at a hotel in Essex carrying a bag containing £ 50,000, which she had allegedly collected from Phong.
On the morning of October 22, Harrison picked up 39 immigrants from Bierne in France.
His trailer was loaded onto the ship Clementine which left Zeebrugge around 4pm and docked at Purfleet shortly after midnight.
Robinson, who picked up the trailer at 1.08 a.m., received instructions from Hughes via Snapchat to “blow them up quickly, don’t let them out.”
When he opened the doors, a column of steam escaped and Robinson stood for 90 seconds.
In the 23 minutes before dialing 999, Robinson exchanged panic calls with his boss Hughes and Nica, who had been waiting for him at Orsett with their drivers.
The first police officer on the scene described finding semi-nude bodies “huddled” together in the trailer, some “foaming at the mouth.”
Mobile phones recovered from the victims showed how they had tried to raise the alarm and leave goodbye messages for their loved ones while they ran out of air.
Others had used a metal pole to try to make a hole in the ceiling or attract attention, the court heard.
Kennedy, Harrison and Calota, who picked up immigrants in Orsett on October 18, variously claimed that they thought they were transporting stolen cigarettes, alcohol and truck parts.
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