[ad_1]
The bodies of 39 migrants found dead in a truck trailer in Essex were so packed together that the first police officer on the scene was unable to check them all for signs of life, a court has heard.
PC Jack Emerson told the Old Bailey how he and a colleague were sent to an industrial park after an emergency call from the truck driver. Maurice Robinson.
Robinson, 26, had picked up the trailer from the Purfleet docks after it was transported from Zeebrugge in Belgium, the Old Bailey heard.
The migrants were found in a truck trailer in Grays, Essex
Marked police cars arriving on Eastern Avenue, Thurrock, were shown to the CCTV court where PC Emerson described seeing Robinson’s truck parked with the rear door of the trailer open.
“I could see numerous semi-naked bodies lying motionless on the ground,” he described.
“It became clear that the entire trailer was full of corpses. They all appeared half naked, with the lower half dressed. All the bodies were intact.”
When police arrived on the scene at 1.50 am, Robinson was “standing there” and appeared calm, according to PC Emerson.
Four men are on trial for the deaths of the Vietnamese immigrants, who were found in the back of a truck trailer in Grays, Essex, in October last year.
PC Emerson said the bodies, which appeared Asian, did not appear to have been there for long and could find no signs of decomposition.
Use the Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
“However, there was a strange smell coming from the trailer that smelled of chemicals,” he said. “There was also condensation of smoke coming from the rear of the trailer, which suggested to me that the trailer was refrigerated.”
PC Emerson and his colleague checked the trailer for signs of life, pulses, and chest movements, but found none.
“It was not possible to search all the bodies. They were too crowded, mostly lying on their backs,” he told the court, adding that some of them appeared to be “foaming at the mouth” and others hot.
The court heard that later that morning, another truck driver on trial for the deaths, Christopher Kennedy, exchanged text messages with a contact about the incident.
The friend asked: “Who is the yoke BG that got into Essex with the bodies?”
Kennedy named transportation chief Ronan Hughes, adding: “A mess.”
When asked what happened, he replied, “I don’t know, he must have been 2 petty and run out of air (sic).”
The friend wrote: “End of the road for him and drive.”
Kennedy added: “He will never see the light of day again.”
Police officers and coroners in Grays, Essex, last October
Previously, the court was told how the migrants would have been cut off from the world as soon as the trailer doors were closed. Some of them repeatedly tried to make phone calls, and one of them unsuccessfully dialed the emergency number of the Vietnamese police while they were struggling to breathe.
Jurors heard that Vietnamese nationals, ages 15 to 44, were pronounced dead at 2:40 a.m. on October 23.
Robinson and Hughes, 41, have admitted to the murder of the migrants.
Truck driver Eamonn Harrison, 23, who left the trailer in Zeebrugge, has denied 39 counts of involuntary manslaughter along with Nica, 43.
Harrison, Kennedy, 24, and Valentin Calota, 37, have denied being part of a broader human trafficking conspiracy, which Nica has admitted.
