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Haulier pleads guilty to manslaughter over deaths of 39 migrants found in Essex container

Ronan Hughes admitted 39 counts of manslaughter. (PA/Essex)
Ronan Hughes admitted 39 counts of manslaughter. (PA/Essex)

A haulier has pleaded guilty to 39 counts of manslaughter after migrants were found dead in the back of a container in Essex.

The bodies of Vietnamese men, women and children were discovered in Grays after it arrived in Purfleet on a ferry in October 2019.

An inquest heard they died from asphyxia and hyperthermia – a lack of oxygen and overheating.

Ronan Hughes, 40, from County Armagh, Northern Ireland, also admitted one count of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration between 1 May 2018 and 24 October 2019 at the Old Bailey on Friday.

It was alleged he played a leading role, using his trailers and drivers to transport migrants.

Eamonn Harrison, 23, of Mayobridge, County Down, Northern Ireland, pleaded not guilty to 39 counts of manslaughter and one count of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.

Ronan Hughes, 40, from Co Armagh in Northern Ireland, has pleaded guilty to 39 counts of manslaughter. (PA/Essex Police)
Ronan Hughes, 40, from Co Armagh in Northern Ireland, has pleaded guilty to 39 counts of manslaughter. (PA/Essex Police)
A general view of the Central Criminal Court in the Old Bailey, London.
The defendants all appeared at the Old Bailey. (PA)

He is alleged to have driven the lorry trailer to Zeebrugge, Belgium, before it sailed to Purfleet.

Gazmir Nuzi, 42, from North London, pleaded guilty to a single charge of assisting unlawful immigration on or before October 11 2019 and April 18 2020.

In April, Maurice Robinson, 25, a lorry driver from Craigavon in Northern Ireland, who found the bodies after transporting the container from Purfleet to Grays, pleaded guilty to 39 counts of manslaughter, 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, from Essex, admitted one count of conspiring to assist unlawful immigration between May 2018 and October 2019.

Harrison now faces an Old Bailey trial in October with three other defendants.

Gheorghe Nica, 43, of Basildon, Essex, has previously denied 39 counts of manslaughter and conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.

Valentin Calota, 37, of Birmingham, and Christopher Kennedy, 23, of County Armagh, Northern Ireland, deny being part of a people smuggling conspiracy.