Man admits manslaughter after 39 migrants found dead in lorry
He was one of several men accused of being part of a people-smuggling ring linked to the deaths.
A man has pleaded guilty to manslaughter after 39 Vietnamese migrants were found dead in the back of a lorry.
Haulier Ronan Hughes, 40, of Co Armagh in Northern Ireland, appeared at the Old Bailey today.
He’s admitted his part in causing the deaths of the migrants whose bodies were found in a refrigerated container in Essex last October.
He was one of several men accused of being part of a people-smuggling ring linked to the deaths.
The bodies of the Vietnamese nationals were discovered on an industrial estate in Grays, Essex, shortly after the lorry arrived in Purfleet on a ferry in the early hours of October 23 last year. It had travelled from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge.
Among the men, women and children were 10 teenagers, two of them 15-year-old boys.
An inquest heard their medical cause of death was asphyxia and hyperthermia – a lack of oxygen and overheating – in an enclosed space.
Hughes also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration. It was alleged he played a leading role in the operation, with his trailers and drivers used to transport migrants.
He appeared in the dock alongside Eamonn Harrison, 23, of Mayobridge, Co Down, Northern Ireland, who is alleged to have driven the lorry before it sailed to England.
Harrison pleaded not guilty to 39 counts of manslaughter and one count of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.
Harrison and Hughes appeared at the Old Bailey after both being extradited from the Republic of Ireland in July.
On April 8, 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.
He also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration of non-European Union citizens and acquiring criminal property, but denied a further charge of transferring criminal property.
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 today, 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.
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.
A further hearing was fixed for September 21 for a pre-trial review.
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