Essex lorry deaths: Four people-smugglers jailed for a total of 78 years
The Old Bailey Court in London on January 22 jailed four people-smugglers for a combined 78 years after 39 Vietnamese migrants smuggled to the UK were found dead in the back of a lorry.
Gheorghe Nica (left), Eamonn Harrison (second, right) at the Old Bailey Court. (Photo: AFP/VNA)
London (VNA) - The Old Bailey Court in London on January 22 jailedfour people-smugglers for a combined 78 years after 39 Vietnamese migrants smuggled to the UK were found dead in the back of a lorry.
Ringleaders Gheorghe Nica, 43, and Ronan Hughes, 41, and drivers MauriceRobinson, 26, and Eamonn Harrison, 24, were give imprisonment sentences on the day.
Nica was given 27 years, Hughes got 20 years in prison, Harrison wassentenced to 18 years, and Robinson was jailed for 13 years and four months -all for 39 counts of manslaughter and a people-smuggling conspiracy.
On October 23, 2019, the bodies of 39 Vietnamese were discovered in the back of arefrigerated lorry at an industrial estate in Grays in Essex, near London.
Autopsies concluded that the provisional cause of the death of the victims wasa combination of hypoxia, or oxygen deprivation and hyperthermia, oroverheating in an enclosed space./.
A 40-year-old Irish haulier pleaded guilty at Old Bailey Court on August 28 to the manslaughter of 39 Vietnamese migrants found dead in the back of a refrigerated lorry in Essex, the UK last October.
Gheorghe Nica, 43, accused of manslaughter over the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants whose bodies were discovered in the back of a lorry near London, the UK, last year, pleaded guilty to an immigration offence on October 7.
A British truck driver who discovered 39 dead Vietnamese migrants in a refrigerated lorry waited about 23 minutes before notifying police, a court was told on October 27.
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Gheorghe Nica (left), Eamonn Harrison (second, right) at the Old Bailey Court. (Photo: AFP/VNA) 
