Two found guilty of manslaughter in UK over Viet migrant deaths
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The bodies of the men and women were found in a container near London in October last year.
PHOTO: AFP
LONDON • Two key defendants accused of manslaughter and people smuggling after the gruesome discovery of 39 dead Vietnamese migrants in the back of a lorry in England were found guilty yesterday.
The bodies of the men and women were found in a container near London in October last year after suffocating in sweltering temperatures.
All were aged between 15 and 44.
Lorry driver Eamonn Harrison, 24, from Northern Ireland, and Romanian national Gheorghe Nica, 43, were found guilty of 39 counts of manslaughter by a London court after a 10-week trial.
They are expected to be sentenced early next month.
Christopher Kennedy, 24, and Valentin Calota, 38, were also convicted for their part in the smuggling operation.
All four were found guilty over their roles in a lucrative smuggling ring which prosecutors said had been motivated by greed.
It brings the total number found guilty in Britain in connection with the crime to eight. Prosecutors are considering charges against a further three people.
Maurice Robinson, 26, who collected the container and found the bodies, had already pleaded guilty to 39 counts of manslaughter and to conspiring in people-smuggling.
Haulage firm boss Ronan Hughes, 41, has also admitted to 39 manslaughter charges.
The bodies were discovered at the south-eastern English port of Purfleet after being sealed inside the container for at least 12 hours, in unbearably high temperatures.
A forensic expert calculated it would have taken about nine hours for the air to turn toxic in the trailer, with death coming soon after.
The bodies were discovered at the south-eastern English port of Purfleet after being sealed inside the container for at least 12 hours, in unbearably high temperatures. A forensic expert calculated it would have taken about nine hours for the air to turn toxic in the trailer.
Prosecutors said the trapped Vietnamese were unable to get a phone signal inside the container, whose cooling system was turned off.
Mobile phones recovered from the bodies of the 39 victims showed that they had tried to raise the alarm and left messages for the families as they ran out of air.
Others had used a metal pole to try to punch a hole through the roof or attract attention, the court heard.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE