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The bodies of 39 Vietnamese were found in frozen containers in the UK on October 23, 2019 – Photo: PA
The testimony of the witness known to the court as “X” appeared in court on October 22, according to the BBC. He confirmed to the jury that one of the 14 Vietnamese who smuggled into the UK on October 11, 2016, two weeks before 39 people died.
X said he met with 13 other people in the French capital of Paris before going to England. Both cases of smuggling, according to the prosecutor, were organized by the same group in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
According to witness X, there are two fees to enter the UK, ordinary and VIP with VIP prices up to £ 13,000 (almost 400 million). Both types of tickets have to go into the container to take a sea ferry from Belgium to the UK.
The regular type differs from the VIP type in that those who buy VIP tickets will be instructed by the container driver on how to deal with the test, will be given drinking water, and will be shown how to use the bathroom.
X said he spent 90 minutes in a taxi from an apartment near Paris to a field where his group of 15 were asked to hide and wait.
An English-speaking truck driver arrives and takes the group to the car. If the driver hits the side of the car, they should get up together in the middle of the trunk and “make no noise.”
The cruise to the UK in the container lasted about 8 hours, the jury said.
“When the container door was opened, some English speakers with a European accent hurried us out and into a black car,” X said.
X was then locked in the second-floor apartment of a man named Phong until his family transferred £ 13,000 to an account in Vietnam.
X said he knew about the border crossing through a friend and contacted Phong through the Viber messaging app.
The witness’s cell phone verification results showed him in Paris on October 10, 2019 and in south-east London the next day.
Witness X’s fingerprints were found inside the car and driver Maurice Robinson’s fingerprints were also found on the urine bottle.
Maurice Robinson, 25, is part of the illegal cross-border transit line. During a hearing in London on April 8, Robinson admitted 39 counts of involuntary manslaughter. Before that, in November 2019, Robinson pleaded guilty to aiding the illegal transportation of people across the border.
Driver Christopher Kennedy, 24, from Armagh, Ireland, denied joining the traffic line, along with his colleagues Eamonn Harrison (23 years old) and Valentin Calota (37 years old).
The person charged as line manager is Gheorghe Nica, 43, of Essex, who admitted to being guilty of engaging in illegal immigration activities but denied 39 counts of murder.
The trial is still going on.
