A truck driver has admitted the manslaughter of 39 migrants whose bodies were found in his refrigerated trailer in October 2019.
Maurice Robinson, 25, from Craigavon in Northern Ireland, had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and acquiring criminal property.
Breaking: Lorry driver Maurice Robinson has admitted 39 counts of manslaughter over the deaths of migrants found dead in the back of his lorry in Essex last year.
— Tristan Kirk (@kirkkorner) April 8, 2020
On Tuesday, 8 April, he appeared at the Old Bailey in London by video link from Belmarsh prison and formally entered a plea of guilty to the manslaughter of the 28 Vietnamese men, eight women and two children.
The hearing was conducted in an almost empty courtroom with most lawyers and journalists dialling in via Skype.
The bodies were found in the trailer in an industrial park in Grays, Essex, on 23 October. It has subsequently emerged that the truck arrived at nearby Purfleet on a ship which crossed the English Channel from Zeebrugge in Belgium.
Maurice Robinson has pleaded GUILTY to 39 counts of manslaughter in relation to the bodies found in a container in Grays, Essex last October. Gheorghe Nica (joint British/Romanian national) has pleaded NOT GUILTY to the same offences - at a videolink hearing at Old Bailey this pm
— Daniel Sandford (@BBCDanielS) April 8, 2020
Several other people face trial in October this year for their alleged role in the deaths of the migrants, who had travelled overland from Vietnam.
Gheorghe Nica, 43, who is originally from Romania, denied 39 counts of manslaughter and one count of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration between May 2018 and October 2019.
Romanian national Alexandru-Ovidiu Hanga, 27, denies a charge of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.
Christopher Kennedy, 23, from County Armagh in Northern Ireland, denies conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.
Valentin Calota, 37, from Birmingham, has yet to enter a plea to the charge of conspiring to assist unlawful immigration.
