A South Armagh man paid £25,000 to a haulage driver to smuggle 39 Vietnamese workers into Britain who were later found dead in a lorry trailer, a court was told on Thursday.

Ronan Hughes, 40, faces extradition from the Irish Republic to the UK where he will be charged with manslaughter over the deaths of the migrants last autumn.

At a bail hearing in Dublin an Irish police officer described Hughes as the ringleader and organiser of a people-smuggling plot.

The bodies of the 39 people were found in a lorry trailer at Grays last October after the trailer arrived at Purfleet from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge.

Hughes, who has an address in Silverstream, Co Monaghan, observed the proceedings by video link from Cloverhill prison in Dublin.

The Dublin high court judge Mr Justice Paul Burns denied Hughes bail. A further extradition hearing will be held in Dublin on 7 May.

At the Old Bailey in London this month, MauriceRobinson admitted manslaughter charges as well conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and acquiring criminal property.

Prosecutors have yet to decide whether or not to proceed with a trial against Robinson over a charge of transferring criminal property. The 25-year-old lorry driver comes from Craigavon in Northern Ireland.

Four other men including Christopher Kennedy from South Armagh will stand trial at the Old Bailey in connection with the investigation.

Another man, 22-year-old Eamonn Harrison, from Mayobridge, Co Down, Northern Ireland, is appealing against his extradition from the Republic of Ireland to the UK to face charges related to the Essex lorry discovery.