Essex lorry deaths: Man pleads guilty to manslaughter of 39 people found dead in refrigerated truck

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A lorry driver has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of 39 people who were found dead in a refrigerated truck in Essex last year.

Maurice Robinson entered his plea at the Old Bailey after the bodies of 29 men, two boys, and eight women – all Vietnamese nationals – were discovered in the town of Grays by emergency services.

The deceased were found shortly after the lorry arrived on a ferry from Zeebrugge in Belgium in the early hours of 23 October.

The 25-year-old, from Craigavon in Northern Ireland, had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and acquiring criminal property but denied a further charge of transferring criminal property. The prosecution asked for three weeks to consider whether to go ahead with a trial on that charge.

The hearing was conducted virtually, with most lawyers and court reporters attending by Skype. Robinson appeared via video link alongside four co-defendants.

British-Romanian Gheorghe Nica, 43, denied 39 counts of manslaughter and one count of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration between 1 May 2018 and 24 October 2019. Romanian national Alexandru-Ovidiu Hanga, 27, denied a charge of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration, while Christopher Kennedy, 23, of Northern Ireland, 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 deaths, which a coroner ruled were caused by suffocation and overheating, triggered an international manhunt to clamp down on those who may have been involved in the alleged trafficking of the deceased, who mostly originated from the Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces in north-central Vietnam.

Additional reporting by PA