People smugglers 'too greedy' Essex lorry container deaths trial told

The bodies of Vietnamese nationals were discovered in a lorry container on an industrial estate in Grays Credit: PA Images

Thirty-nine men, women and children may have died in the back of a lorry in Essex because people smugglers got "greedy" and attempted "two loads in one", a court has heard.

Gheorghe Nica and lorry driver Eamonn Harrison are on trial at the Old Bailey accused of the manslaughter of the Vietnamese migrants who suffocated in a lorry container on October 23 last year after being smuggled across the Channel.

The pair are also accused with another driver Christopher Kennedy and Valentin Calota of being part of a wider people-smuggling plot dating back to May 2018.

Jurors heard how human cargo had been successfully transported in lorry containers from Zeebrugge in Belgium to Purfleet in Essex on October 11 and 18.

But on October 14, 20 migrants were turfed out of a lorry driven by Kennedy bound for the Eurotunnel, the court was told.

Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones suggested an identical trip to the two successful runs turned to tragedy on October 23 because the smugglers, who were being paid £10,000 a head, simply got "too greedy".

He told jurors: "It may well have crossed your minds - why did this trip go so terribly wrong, when on the other occasions the migrants survived the trip and were safely unloaded?

"You may well conclude that on this occasion the criminals just got too greedy, at £10,000 a head.

"They had too many people loaded into a single lorry.

"We know there was enough oxygen in the trailer for the 15-20 people inside the trailer on October 10/11 - and again on (October) 17 and 18, when there must also have been fewer people inside.

"We may not determine for sure, but it might not be a coincidence that a lorry load of migrants was detected and 20 people were ejected out of Kennedy's lorry on the night of October 14.

"Did this mean the people smugglers were under pressure to double up?

"Remember, at least two of those migrants who died on the night of the (October) 22/23 had been amongst those kicked off Kennedy's lorry a week before.

"Were they doing two loads in one and did that cause those deaths?"

Nica 43, of Basildon, Essex, and Harrison, 23, of Mayobridge, Co Down, Northern Ireland, deny 39 counts of manslaughter.

Harrison, Kennedy, 24, of Co Armagh, Northern Ireland and Valentin Calota 37, of Birmingham, deny being part of a wider people-smuggling operation, which Nica has admitted.

The court has previously heard that four other defendants have already admitted their part in the people-smuggling plot.

Among them are lorry driver Maurice Robinson, 26, of Craigavon in Northern Ireland, who found the 39 migrants dead in the container after picking it up in Purfleet, and hauler boss Ronan Hughes, 41, of Co Armagh, Northern Ireland, who have admitted manslaughter.