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Two members of an international human smuggling gang were convicted of involuntary manslaughter on Monday (NZT Tuesday) for the deaths of 39 Vietnamese people whose bodies were found in the back of a container truck in south-east England.
A jury at London’s Central Criminal Court found Romanian mechanic Gheorghe Nica, 43, and Northern Ireland truck driver, Eamonn Harrison, 24, guilty of the deaths of Vietnamese citizens, who were found dead in the English city. by Grays.
The victims, aged between 15 and 44, were found on October 23, 2019, inside a refrigerated container that had arrived by ferry from Belgium. The migrants came from impoverished villages and had paid human smugglers thousands of dollars to take them on risky trips to what they hoped would be a better life abroad.
Prosecutors said Harrison drove the container to the Belgian port of Zeebrugge for transport to the UK. Nica was described as the leader of the smuggling gang.
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Two other suspects, Christopher Kennedy and Valentin Calota, were also convicted of human trafficking Monday at the end of a 10-week trial.
Several others have pleaded guilty in the case, including trucking company boss Ronan Hughes, 41, and truck driver Maurice Robinson, 26, who picked up the container in England and admitted 39 counts of involuntary manslaughter.
Prosecutors said all the suspects were part of a gang that charged around £ 13,000 (NZ $ 24,000) per person to transport the migrants in trailers through the Channel Tunnel or by boat.
Elizabeth Cook / AP
This sketch by the archival court artist shows Gheorghe Nica, left, and Eamonn Harrison, right, at the Old Bailey in London.
Jurors heard heartbreaking evidence about the last hours of the victims, who tried to call the Vietnam emergency number for help when the air in the container ran out. When they could not get a mobile phone signal, some recorded goodbye messages to their families.
The trapped migrants, which included a bricklayer, a restaurant worker, a nail technician, a budding beautician and a college graduate, used a metal pole to try to pierce the roof of the reefer container, but only succeeded in denting it.
“There was no way out and no one to listen to them, no one to help them,” said prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones during the trial.
The judge said the defendants would be sentenced in January. The maximum sentence for human trafficking is 14 years in prison, while involuntary manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Kelly Matthews of Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service said that “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 bring some comfort to families in knowing that justice has been served,” said Matthews.
