SEVEN people smugglers have been jailed for a total of more than 92 years in prison after the tragic deaths of 39 Vietnamese nationals in October 2019. The men had worked together to smuggle people illegally into the UK, with some receiving astonishingly high payment for their services, across three dates in October 2019. They were jailed at the Old Bailey on Friday after the discovery of 39 bodies in Waterglade Industrial Park, Grays on October 23, 2019.
An aerial view as police forensic officers attend the scene after a truck was found to contain a large number of dead bodies, in Thurock, South England, Wednesday Oct. 23, 2019. Police in southeastern England said that 39 people were found dead Wednesday
Three Irish men jailed for 39 migrant deaths in Essex
Updated / Friday, 22 Jan 2021
19:52
Maurice Robinson, Ronan Hughes, Gheorghe Nica and Eamonn Harrison (l-r)
Three Irish men and a ringleader of a people smuggling gang have been jailed for the manslaughter of 39 migrants who suffered an excruciating death in an airtight trailer.
The victims, Vietnamese men, woman and children, had hoped for a better life when they agreed to pay up to €14,590-a-head for a VIP smuggling service.
Maurice Robinson, 26, from Craigavon, and his boss Ronan Hughes, 41, from Armagh, had admitted plotting to people smuggle and 39 counts of manslaughter.
Hughes s partner-in-crime Gheorghe Nica, 43, from Basildon, Essex, and Eamonn Harrison, 24, of Co Down, who had collected the victims on the continent, were found guilty of the offences.
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By Press Association 2021
Bodies found in lorry container
Four people smugglers have been jailed for between 13 and 27 years for the manslaughter of 39 migrants, who suffered an “excruciating” death in an airtight trailer.
The victims, Vietnamese men, woman and children, had hoped for a better life in Britain when they agreed to pay up to £13,000 a head for a “VIP” smuggling service.
On October 22 2019, they were crammed into a lorry container to be shipped from Zeebrugge to Purfleet in Essex in pitch black and sweltering conditions.
Top row, left to right, Alexandru-Ovidiu Hanga, Christopher Kennedy, Eamonn Harrison and Gheorghe Nica, and bottom row, left to right, Maurice Robinson, Ronan Hughes and Valentin Calota (Essex Police/PA)
SEVEN people smugglers have been jailed for a total of more than 92 years in prison after the tragic deaths of 39 Vietnamese nationals in October 2019. The men appeared at the Old Bailey in front of his Hon. Mr Justice Sweeney earlier today and have received a total of 92 years and 10 months imprisonment between them. The men had worked together to smuggle people illegally into the UK, with some receiving astonishingly high payment for their services, across three dates in October 2019. Chief Constable of Essex Police, Ben-Julian Harrington, acknowledged that the result upheld the promise he had made to the families more than a year ago.