Four people smugglers who killed 39 Vietnamese migrants by bringing them into the UK in a sealed lorry have been jailed for a total of 78 years.
Drivers Eamonn Harrison, 23, and Maurice Robinson, 26 – together with Romanian fixer Gheorghe Nica, 43 – were paid by Ronan Hughes, 40, to ferry non-EU citizens into the UK.
Hughes headed the million-pound people-smuggling ring which used death trap lorries on multiple occasions – charging his human cargo £14,000 a head.
But a journey in October 2019 went horribly wrong when driver Robinson opened the back of his refrigerated trailer in an industrial park in Grays, Essex, to be met with a gush of steam – and 39 bodies.
Hughes was jailed for 20 years, while fixer Nica – who arranged transport from Essex to London for the foreign nationals – was sentenced to 27.
Robinson was handed a 13-year and four month sentence, while Harrison was jailed for 18 years.
Police at the Waterglade Industrial Park in Grays after the 39 bodies of Vietnamese migrants were found inside the lorry in October 2019
CCTV shows police arriving at the scene where Robinson had found the bodies in the back of his lorry (top right)
During the trial, jurors saw horrifying footage of steam gushing from the container as Robinson opened the doors after pulling up in Eastern Avenue, Grays, at 1.13am on October 23, 2019.
Harrison and Nica were convicted of 39 counts of manslaughter while Kennedy was founf guilty of assisting illegal immigration by an Old Bailey jury.
Robinson called Ronan Hughes, 40 (pictured) – the gang’s ringleader – when he found the bodies of the 28 men, eight women and three children who suffocated as temperatures inside soared to 38.5C
Robinson and Hughes earlier admitted the charges. A seventh man, Alexandru Hanga, 28, admitted conspiring to assist in unlawful immigration in relation to a single occasion separate from the fatal journey.
The seven men appeared at the Old Bailey this afternoon for Mr Justice Sweeney to pass sentence.
Robinson, Hughes, Nica, Harrison sat in a row in the main dock while Kennedy, Calota and Hanga appeared virtually from another courtroom in the building.
Killer trucker Robinson nodded at the judge as he was jailed for 13 years and four months imprisonment.
The judge said today the victims had died ‘excruciatingly slow’ deaths at sea, before they reached Purfleet, in sweltering temperatures of 40 degrees.
Had they arrived safely the smugglers would have made £800,000 for the journey, the court heard today.
Kingpin Hughes hung his head as he was spared a life sentence today and handed 20 years imprisonment.
Wearing a Nike jacket and jeans for his sentencing, Nica showed no emotion when he was jailed for 27 years imprisonment after his conviction of manslaughter.
Harrison, who was convicted of the 39 counts by a majority of 10-1, nodded as he was jailed for 18 years.
Mr Justice Sweeney said the offences did not ‘meet the criteria’ for life sentences because it was possible the killers had not known there was a serious risk of death.
The smugglers had been involved in the deadly trade for years despite repeated run-ins with the authorities.
Harrison was fined after he was stopped near Calais driving a lorry full of Vietnamese nationals in May 2018.
The people smuggler was caught in Coquelles with 18 migrants concealed in the back of his truck.
He didn’t even bother to pay the fine and continued ‘busily bringing illegal immigrants into the country’ along with his co-conspirators.
Kennedy was waved on by French border officials when he tried to smuggle two of the Vietnamese migrants who died weeks later in the tragedy.
The 20 foreign nationals in his trailer were taken away – but Kennedy was allowed to continue on his journey on 14 October.
At least two of those on board were later suffocated to death when they tried again on 23 October.
Police had been tipped off about the Essex route since the summer of 2019 but had done nothing.
Resident Marie Andrews reported the people-smuggling drop to police three times after seeing a group of Vietnamese nationals jump out of a lorry outside her home two weeks before the tragedy.
She called the police after she and her partner Stewart Cox watched a lorry unload 15 to 20 non-EU citizens and tried to warn officers on 11 October.
Giving evidence, Ms Andrews said she had been calling emergency services about ‘dodgy’ activity at her home on Collingwood Farm near Orsett since the summer of 2019.
But she told the court officers ‘had not been listening.’
Harrison met the migrants at a rendezvous in Chemin-Noord Strate in France before driving them to the Belgian port of Zeebrugge.
From there, they sailed across the channel and were collected by Robinson at Purfleet.
They would be dropped off at a handover point on a remote farm near Orsett, from where Nica and his drivers – including Calota – drove them to their final destination in London by car.
Usually loads of around 15 to 20 migrants were taken to the Belgian border.
But after a botched run on 13 October the traffickers wanted to do two loads in one and crammed the container with 39 Vietnamese nationals.
Robinson knew something was wrong on the final leg of the route because he was sent a message on Snapchat by Hughes, reading: ‘Give them air quickly, but don’t let them out,’ to which he responded with a thumbs-up emoji.
The exchange happened at some point between midnight and 1.20am when he opened the container door and found the lifeless bodies piled up.
First he called Hughes and then Nica, waiting 23 minutes to contact the emergency services.
PC Jack Emerson, who attended the scene after the 999 call, said ‘At the back of the trailer I could see a 6ft white male standing at the rear of the trailer that I took as the driver.
‘He was just standing there, his demeanour appeared calm.
‘I could visibly see half naked bodies laying on the trailer floor laying motionless. It became apparent as I got closer that the entire trailer was full of bodies.
‘Most of the bodies were half naked.
‘Most of the bodies were wearing clothes on their lower half but not on their lower half.
‘All of the bodies appeared intact and it was my opinion they had not been there for a long time.
‘As I moved through the trailer I checked the bodies for pulse but couldn’t find one.
‘Because of how packed together the bodies were it was not possible to check every body.
‘I recall when checking some bodies some of them appeared to have been frothing from the mouth.’
Nica admitted assisting unlawful immigration at the start of the trial, but claimed he was no longer involved by the time tragedy struck on 23 October.
The British-Romanian said he had agreed to smuggle people into the country on 11 and 18 October because Hughes ‘came to England and asked him’ but then opted out on 23 October.
The group of migrants were from five provinces in the central, coastal area of Vietnam and two provinces near Hanoi
He shared a ‘celebratory drink’ after a people-smuggling run on 18 October in the bar of the Ibis hotel in Thurrock with the kingpin, Robinson and suspect Marius Draghici.
The four toasted the success of the operation before moving to Hughes’ suite upstairs where a cash handover took place.
Nica insisted he stopped his involvement in the runs after that, claiming he had only been in the country waiting to get British passports for his estranged wife and children.
He said he had been anxious to make money to pay for a rare medical treatment for his four-year-old daughter, who suffers cerebral palsy.
Kennedy and Calota claimed they unwittingly transported the migrants into the country.
But Kennedy accepted that he had helped Hughes ‘disguise’ evidence of human contamination after the 18 October run.
He told jurors he had been due to deliver a legitimate load of Mrs Crimble’s macaroons and Bakewell tarts to a warehouse in Maidstone, Kent, after the stowaways were left with Nica.
When he opened up the back doors the boxes were squashed and covered in footprints with ‘bags of p***’ discarded amongst the goods.
Calota insisting that he had ‘hearing problems’ and had been told to look ahead while Nica loaded the migrants into the back of his van at Collingwood Farm.
He said he had agreed to transport loads of smuggled cigarettes, but denied knowing migrants were in the back of his van during an hour-long journey down to London on the same date.
Harrison insisted he had no idea the Vietnamese nationals were in the container but claimed Hughes, put a price on his head after he crashed one of his trucks in Germany while drunk.
Their claims were rejected by the jury after 22 hours and 48 minutes of deliberation.
Unanimous guilty verdicts were reached for Nica and Kennedy while Harrison and Calota were convicted on each count by a majority of 10 to 1.
The names of the victims were: Dinh Dinh Binh, a 15-year-old boy from Hai Phong, Nguyen Minh Quang, a 20-year-old man from Nghe An, Nguyen Huy Phong, 35-year-old man from Ha Tinh, Le Van Ha, a 30-year-old man from Nghe An, Nguyen Van Hiep, a 24-year-old man from Nghe An, Bui Phan Thang, a 37-year-old man from Ha Tinh, Nguyen Van Hung, a 33-year-old man from Nghe An, Nguyen Huy Hung, a 15-year-old boy from Ha Tin, Nguyen Tien Dung, a 33-year-old man from Quang Binh, Pham Thi Tra My, a 26-year-old woman from Ha Tinh, Tran Khanh Tho, an 18-year-old man from Ha Tinh, Nguyen Van Nhan, a 33-year-old man from Ha Tinh 13, Vo Ngoc Nam, a 28-year-old man from Nghe An, Vo Van Linh, a 25-year-old man from Ha Tinh, Nguyen Ba Vu Hung, a 34-year-old man from Thua Tien Hue, Vo Nhan Du, a 19-year-old man from Ha Tinh, Tran Hai Loc, a 35-year-old man from Nghe An, Tran Manh Hung, a 37-year-old man from Ha Tinh, Nguyen Thi Van, a 35-year-old woman from Nghe An, Bui Thi Nhung, a 19-year-old woman from Nghe An, Hoang Van Tiep, an 18-year-old man from Nghe An, Tran Thi Ngoc, a 19-year-old woman from Nghe An, Phan Thi Thanh, a 41-year-old woman from Hai Phong 24, Tran Thi Tho, a 21-year-old woman from Nghe An, Duong Minh Tuan, a 27-year-old man from Quang Binh, Pham Thi Ngoc Oanh, a 28-year-old woman from Nghe An, Tran Thi Mai Nhung, an 18-year-old woman from Nghe An, Le Trong Thanh a 44-year-old man from Dien Chau, Nguyen Ngoc Ha, a 32-year-old man from Quang Binh, Hoang Van Hoi, a 24-year-old man from Nghe An, Tran Ngoc Hieu, a 17-year-old boy from Hai Duong, Cao Tien Dung, a 37-year-old man from Nghe An, Dinh Dinh Thai Quyen, an 18-year-old man from Hai Phong, Dong Huu Tuyen, a 22-year-old man from Nghe An, Nguyen Dinh Luong, a 20-year-old man from Ha Tinh, Cao Huy Thanh, a 37-year-old man from Nghe An, Nguyen Trong Thai, a 26-year-old man from Nghe An, Nguyen Tho Tuan, a 25-year-old man from Nghe An and Nguyen Dinh Tu, a 26-year-old man from Nghe An.
Their final moments as they gasped for air and cried for help were played to the court in a horrifying recording from one of the migrants’ phones.
A panicked voice in the background can be heard trying to reassure their compatriots, saying: ‘Come on everyone, open up, and open up.’
Moments later, another victim said: ‘He’s dead.’
The original tape, which captures the bravery of the migrants as they realised they were dying, was played before prosecutor Jonathan Polnay translated the messages of the victims.
Frantic heavy breathing and crying can be heard in the background of the audio as the two victims recorded their goodbyes to their loved ones.
Killers Nica and Hughes remained expressionless in the dock as the recording was played, while Robinson briefly bowed his head and then returned to gaze stonily ahead.
Maurice Robinson heartless reaction when he was told by his boss to give the victims air was: ‘I can’t, they’re f***ing dead.’
Harrison, from Mayobridge, County Down, denied but was convicted of 39 counts of manslaughter and conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.
He was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment.
Nica, of Mimosa Close, Langdon Hills, Basildon, Essex, denied but was convicted of 39 counts of manslaughter and one count of conspiring to assist unlawful immigration relating to the date of 23 October.
He admitted a further count of conspiring to assist unlawful immigration relating to the period before the tragedy and was jailed for 27 years.
Robinson, from Craigavon, County Armagh, admitted manslaughter and conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and acquiring criminal property.
He was sentenced to 13 years and four months imprisonment.
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