This article is more than 5 months old

This article is more than 5 months old

A lorry driver from Northern Ireland has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of 39 Vietnamese migrants who were found dead in a refrigerated trailer last year.

Maurice Robinson, 25, was arrested shortly after the bodies of eight females and 31 males were found in a trailer attached to his Scania cab in an industrial park in Grays, Essex, on 23 October. They included 10 teenagers, the youngest of whom were two boys aged 15.

The driver, from Craigavon in Northern Ireland, appeared at the Old Bailey via video link alongside four other men charged as part of an investigation by Essex police.

Having previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and acquiring criminal property, on Wednesday he also admitted 39 counts of manslaughter on or before 24 October last year.

He denied a further charge of transferring criminal property.

Prosecutors have asked for three weeks to decide on whether to proceed with a trial against Robinson on the outstanding charge, but other defendants face a trial at the Old Bailey lasting up to eight weeks from 5 October.

The people found dead inside the container, who were formally identified last November, are believed to have suffocated and overheated. Travelling in a lorry that had been nicknamed The Polar Express, Robinson had picked up the container after it had been brought to Purfleet in Essex from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge. A short time later, ambulance and police made the grim discovery of the 39 bodies in the back at the estate in Grays.

Among four other co-defendants who appeared on Wednesday was a British Romanian man, Gheorghe Nica, 43, from Langdon Hills, Essex, who denied 39 counts of manslaughter.

He also denied one count of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration between 1 May 2018 and 24 October 2019.

A Romanian national, Alexandru-Ovidiu Hanga, 27, from Tilbury, Essex, denied a charge of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.

Christopher Kennedy, 23, from Darkley, Co Armagh, Northern Ireland, has previously denied conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.

Valentin Calota, 37, from Birmingham, was not asked to enter a plea to the charge of conspiring to assist unlawful immigration.

The prosecutor, William Emlyn Jones QC, said a human trafficking conspiracy charge was being dropped in relation to Kennedy and Robinson.

The hearing was conducted virtually with most lawyers and court reporters attending via Skype.

An Irish lorry driver wanted for his alleged role has meanwhile continued to fight his extradition from Dublin. Eamonn Harrison, who is wanted in Britain on charges of human trafficking and immigration offences, as well as 39 counts of manslaughter, had been granted permission by a judge in Dublin to appeal against his extradition.

The 23-year-old, from Mayobridge in County Down, Northern Ireland, is alleged to have driven a refrigerated container to the port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, and later signed the shipping notice for it.

Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland programme director, said: “This was a heartbreaking and horrific incident. Sadly, there will always be those willing to take advantage of people who feel forced to make dangerous journeys, because current immigration policies and practices deny them safe and legal options to reach the UK.”