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LONDON (AFP): Two people were found guilty on Monday (December 21) of involuntary manslaughter and human trafficking for the gruesome discovery of 39 Vietnamese immigrants killed in the back of a truck in England last year.
The bodies of men and women were found inside a sealed container near London in October 2019 after suffocating in sweltering temperatures.
Truck driver Eamonn Harrison, 24, from Northern Ireland, and Romanian citizen Gheorghe Nica, 43, were found guilty of 39 counts of murder by a London court.
They are expected to be sentenced in early January.
Christopher Kennedy, 24, and Valentin Calota, 38, were also convicted of their involvement in the smuggling operation after the 10-week trial.
All four were found guilty for their role in a lucrative smuggling ring that prosecutors say was motivated by greed.
Interior Minister (Interior Minister) Priti Patel said Monday’s verdict had motivated her “to do everything possible to go after human traffickers who prey on the vulnerable and trade in human misery.”
“I am determined to bring insensitive human traffickers to justice and keep our communities safe from the actions of horrendous organized crime groups.”
Monday’s convictions bring to eight the total number of guilty in the UK in relation to the crime.
Prosecutors are considering charges against three other people.
Maurice Robinson, 26, who collected the container and found the bodies, had already pleaded guilty to 39 counts of involuntary manslaughter and human trafficking conspiracy.
The head of the trucking company, Ronan Hughes, 41, also admitted 39 counts of murder.
Messages left for families
The bodies were discovered in the port of Purfleet, in the southeast of England, after being sealed inside the container for at least 12 hours, at unbearably high temperatures.
A forensic expert estimated that the air in the trailer would have taken about nine hours to become toxic, with death occurring shortly after.
All the victims were between 15 and 44 years old.
Prosecutors have said the trapped Vietnamese were unable to get a phone signal inside the container, whose cooling system was turned off.
Cell phones recovered from the bodies of the 39 victims showed they had tried to raise the alarm and left messages for families when 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.
During the trial, British police officer Jack Emerson described finding the trailer “full of bodies” when he first arrived at the scene and searched for signs of life.
He said he could not check if everyone inside was still alive, as they were “huddled” in the back of the truck.
The deaths of Vietnamese victims in the UK have highlighted the vast and unscrupulous trafficking networks that span the world.
Many of them had come from poorer parts of Vietnam with their families and, like others, were mired in thousands of dollars in debt to human traffickers to pay for the dangerous trips.
Seven people were convicted in September in Vietnam for varying degrees of involvement in trafficking in the country’s central Ha Tinh province.
Investigations in France and Belgium also led dozens of suspects to be charged following an investigation led by the EU police cooperation agency, Eurojust. – AFP
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