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Essex lorry deaths: driver charged with 39 counts of manslaughter Essex lorry deaths: driver charged with 39 counts of manslaughter
(32 minutes later)
A 25-year-old man from Northern Ireland has been charged with 39 counts of manslaughter and conspiracy to traffic people, Essex police have said. The driver of the lorry that contained 39 dead migrants has been charged with manslaughter and human trafficking.
Maurice Robinson, known as Mo, was arrested early on Wednesday morning after police were alerted to the discovery of 31 men and eight women found dead in a lorry trailer in Grays, Essex. Maurice ‘Mo’ Robinson, 25, from Northern Ireland, faces 39 counts of manslaughter, conspiracy to traffic people, conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and money laundering, Essex police said on Saturday.
Robinson had picked up the trailer, which had arrived in Purfleet from Zeebrugge in Belgium, with his Scania lorry cab less than an hour earlier. He is due to appear at Chelmsford magistrates court on Monday. The announcement came shortly after Irish police arrested another Northern Irish man at Dublin port on suspicion of involvement in the tragedy. It brought the number of people from the island of Ireland who have been arrested to five, fuelling suspicion an Irish smuggling gang was part of the network that transported the migrants.
He is charged with 39 counts of manslaughter, conspiracy to traffic people, conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration, and money laundering. The sprawling police investigation stretches from the Irish border, England, continental Europe and Vietnam, where many of the victims are believed to have come from.
The charges came after a man wanted by Essex police as part of the investigation was arrested at Dublin port on Saturday. An Garda Síochána said the man, who is in his early 20s and from Northern Ireland, was held over an unrelated outstanding court order and will appear in court on Saturday afternoon. Robinson, from Craigavon, Co Armagh, was arrested early on Wednesday morning after police were alerted to the discovery of 31 men and eight women in the back of a lorry trailer in Grays, Essex. Robinson had picked up the trailer, which had arrived in Purfleet from Zeebrugge, with his Scania lorry cab less than an hour earlier.
He is understood to be sought by Essex police as part of their investigation, and the force confirmed that officers were liaising with Irish police. Essex police said the Crown Prosecution Service had decided to charge the driver. “He is due to appear at Chelmsford magistrates court on Monday 28 October charged with 39 counts of manslaughter, conspiracy to traffic people, conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and money laundering.”
Three other people arrested over the deaths, including a 48-year-old man from Northern Ireland who was detained at Stansted airport on Friday on suspicion of conspiracy to traffic people and manslaughter, remain in custody. Friends and relatives of Robinson have protested his innocence.
Officers had earlier arrested a couple, named locally as haulage boss Thomas Maher and his wife, Joanna, both 38, of Warrington, on suspicion of 39 counts of manslaughter and people trafficking. A portrait of some of the alleged victims has emerged from Vietnam where relatives of missing migrants have come forward.
In Belgium, police are hunting the driver who delivered the trailer to Zeebrugge, the port it left before arriving in the UK. DCI Martin Pasmore told reporters he had met the Vietnamese ambassador to the UK, Tran Ngoc An, and that investigators will share fingerprints with Vietnamese authorities to try to identify the dead. The bodies have been taken to Broomfield hospital in Chelmsford for postmortem examinations.
The time the victims entered the trailer and the exact route by which it travelled are not yet known. Belgian officials said the trailer arrived at Zeebrugge at 2.49pm on Tuesday and left the port the same day en route for Purfleet. The 23-year-old Northern Irish man arrested at Dublin port on Saturday is understood to be a person of interest to Essex police. Gardai held him over an unrelated outstanding court order concerning an offence in Ireland. He was due to appear in court later on Saturday.
The trailer arrived at Purfleet at around 12.30am on Wednesday, and was picked up by the cab, known as the tractor, which had arrived from Northern Ireland via Holyhead in north Wales on Sunday. The lorry left the port at Purfleet shortly after 1.05am and police were called to the Waterglade industrial park on Eastern Avenue in Grays at 1.40am. On Friday British police made three other arrests.
Joanna and Thomas Maher, both aged 38, are a married Irish couple living in Warrington. Before being arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to traffic people and on suspicion of manslaughter they told reporters they had sold the truck 13 months ago. They expressed disgust at the migrants’ deaths.
Also on Friday, police arrested a 48-year-old man from Northern Ireland at Stansted airport on suspicion of conspiracy to traffic people and on suspicion of manslaughter.
In Belgium, police are hunting the driver who delivered the trailer to the port of Zeebrugge before it arrived in Purfleet port, where Robinson collected it and drove a short distance before reportedly discovering the dead migrants and raising the alarm.
Global Trailer Rental Europe, an Irish company based in Co Monaghan, owns the trailer. It rented it on 15 October to an Irish haulier based in a nearby town.
When the Guardian visited the area on Saturday residents who identified themselves as relatives of the haulier said he was not at home. They declined to comment.
GPS data from the refrigerated unit shows it left Monaghan on 15 October and crossed into Northern Ireland and then back south into Ireland, sources have said. It then travelled from Dublin port to the UK overnight on 16 October, and crossed to mainland Europe that evening.
The trailer travelled to Dunkirk and Lille in France, and Bruges in Belgium. Dunkirk is a 40-minute drive from Calais and is a known site for people smugglers preying on migrants seeking to cross the Channel to the UK.
The data from the tracking device, which has been passed to Essex police investigating the deaths, also shows the trailer made a journey between the UK and mainland Europe on 22 October.
Very few identification papers were found in the lorry, said Pasmore. He appealed for those who may know the victims – who were initially said to be Chinese – to come forward.
“It may well be that there are people watching this tonight that are thinking ‘I’m here in the UK and I’m here illegally and I want to come forward, I want to obviously try and identify my loved ones and be reunited,’ but they are frightened to come forward,” Pasmore said.
He explained he had met with a “facilitator” of one of the websites run for the Vietnamese community to help build trust between it and the police, hoping to encourage people to “take that leap of faith” and make contact with Essex police.
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