Man admits manslaughter over deaths of 39 migrants found in lorry near Dartford Crossing
16:39, 28 August 2020
updated: 18:23, 28 August 2020
A man has admitted manslaughter after 39 migrants were found dead inside the back of a lorry near the Dartford Crossing.
The bodies of the Vietnamese nationals were found on an industrial estate in Grays, Essex, shortly after the lorry arrived in Purfleet on October 23.
Among those men, women and children were 10 teenagers, including two 15-year-old boys.
An inquest into the deaths of the people gave their cause of death as asphysxia and hyperthermia in an enclosed space.
Earlier today Ronan Hughes, from Co. Armagh in Northern Ireland, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey in London to 39 counts of manslaughter.
The haulier also plead guilty to conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration between May 1, 2018, and October 24 last year.
It was alleged the 40-year-old played a leading role in the operations, with his trailers and drivers used to transport migrants.
Hughes appeared in court alongside Eamonn Harrison , of Mayobridge in Co. Down, Northern Ireland, after being extradited from the Republic of Ireland in July.
He is alleged to have driven the lorry from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge before it sailed to England.
The 23-year-old pleaded not guilty to 39 counts of manslaughter and one count of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.
In April, lorry driver Maurice Robinson, 25, of Craigavon in Northern Ireland, who discovered the bodies after transporting the container from Purfleet to an alleged pick-up point in Grays, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to 39 counts of manslaughter.
In June, Romanian Alexandru-Ovidiu Hanga, 28, of Hobart Road in Essex, admitted one count of conspiring to assist unlawful immigration between May 2018 and October 2019.
During the hearing on Friday, Gazmir Nuzi, 42, of Barclay Road, Tottenham, north London, appeared at the Old Bailey by video link and pleaded guilty to a single charge of assisting unlawful immigration on or before October 11 2019 and April 18 2020.
Harrison now faces an Old Bailey trial on October 5 with three other defendants.
Gheorghe Nica, 43, of Langdon Hills, Basildon, Essex, who is alleged to have been a key player, has previously denied 39 counts of manslaughter and conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration. Valentin Calota, 37, of Birmingham, and Christopher Kennedy, 23, of Co Armagh, Northern Ireland, have denied being part of a people smuggling conspiracy.
Remanding the defendants into custody, Mr Justice Sweeney said the trial would go on for five weeks instead of eight.
