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U.K. Truck Driver Charged With Manslaughter in Deaths of 39 U.K. Truck Driver Charged With Manslaughter in Deaths of 39
(about 1 hour later)
LONDON — A 25-year-old man was charged with manslaughter and conspiracy to traffic people in connection with the deaths of 39 people whose bodies were found this past week in a refrigerated truck in southeastern England, the Essex Police said Saturday. LONDON — A 25-year-old man was charged on Saturday with manslaughter and a trafficking conspiracy in connection with the deaths of 39 people whose bodies were found in a refrigerated truck in southeastern England, the Essex Police said.
The man, a driver identified Saturday as Maurice Robinson of Northern Ireland, is to appear on Monday at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court to face 39 counts of manslaughter, conspiracy to traffic people, conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and money laundering, the Essex Police said in a statement. Previous reports had spelled his first name as Morris and said he was also known Mo. The man, the truck’s driver, who was identified on Saturday as Maurice Robinson of Northern Ireland, also faces 39 counts of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and money laundering when he appears at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on Monday, the Essex Police said in a statement.
The charges were announced shortly after the police in Ireland said they had arrested another man in his early 20s from Northern Ireland at Dublin Port on Saturday morning. Mr. Robinson was originally arrested on suspicion of murder after the grisly discovery in Essex, England, this past week spurred an investigation that stretched beyond Britain’s borders to Belgium, China, Ireland and Vietnam. The case bears all the markings of a global trafficking operation gone tragically wrong.
The unidentified man was detained in connection with an unrelated offense in the Republic of Ireland, but local news outlets said he was also wanted for questioning by the police in Essex in connection with the truck deaths. The charges were announced on Saturday shortly after the police in Ireland said they had arrested another man from Northern Ireland at Dublin Port on Saturday morning in connection with an unrelated offense. But local news outlets reported he was wanted for questioning in the investigation of the truck deaths.
The Essex police initially announced that the eight women and 31 men found dead in the container were Chinese citizens. But since then, community groups in Vietnam have said they believe some of the victims may have been Vietnamese. The man, another truck driver identified as Eamon Harrison, 23, was detained on a bench warrant on charges of assault and criminal damage in the Republic of Ireland, according to The Irish Times, which cited information from Detective Patrick Flood of the Garda National Immigration Bureau.
On Saturday, Detective Chief Inspector Martin Pasmore told reporters that the police could not yet confirm the victims’ nationalities. In order to perform autopsies, the bodies have been moved from the truck at Tilbury Docks to Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, the police said. Mr. Harrison was arrested about 1:15 p.m. Saturday on a truck coming off an Irish ferry at Dublin Port, having spent the last three days in France and disposing of a cellphone before traveling to Ireland, Detective Flood told The Irish Times.
Three other people have been detained in the investigation: a man and a woman from Warrington, England, both 38, and a 48-year-old man from Northern Ireland. A spokesman for the Essex police would not confirm Mr. Harrison’s connection to their investigation, but the authorities said in a statement on Saturday night, “We are in liaison with the Garda police in relation to an arrest they have made today at Dublin Port.”
They were arrested this past week on suspicion of conspiracy to traffic people and manslaughter, and remain in custody. The Essex police initially announced that the eight women and 31 men found dead in the container were Chinese citizens. But since then, community groups in Vietnam have said they believe some of the victims may have been from that country.
Officials have been trying to piece together clues from Belgium, Britain, Bulgaria, China, Ireland and Vietnam to find out why the 39 ended up in the container, and how they lost their lives. The police in Britain said the identification of the victims and verification of their nationalities would take some time, but the dearth of information has not stopped some Vietnamese from mourning victims they believed were once part of their community.
Belgian officials indicated on Thursday that the container arrived in the port of Zeebrugge last Tuesday afternoon. The Rev. Anthony Dang Huu Nam, a Catholic priest in the remote town of Yen Thanh in Vietnam’s northern-central Nghe An Province, told Reuters that many residents feared that relatives who had left home to find a better life abroad may be among the dead.
Ed O’Loughlin contributed reporting from Dublin, and Matthew Sedacca from New York. “The whole district is covered in sorrow,” Father Nam was quoted as saying. Prayers for the dead could be heard over loudspeakers throughout the town on Saturday, Reuters reported.
The rights activist Hoa Nghiem has said that the family of a Vietnamese woman, Pham Thi Tra My, 26, feared she might have been in the trailer. Vietnam’s Embassy in London also said it was working with the British authorities after receiving requests from some Vietnamese families asking for help in verifying whether their relatives were among the victims.
On Saturday, Detective Chief Inspector Martin Pasmore told reporters that the police could not definitively confirm the victims’ nationalities. The Essex police were undertaking “the largest mass fatality victim identification process in the history of Essex Police” to name the victims and inform their families, they said.
A Vietnamese community group said it had been in contact with the British police to pass on 20 photographs that families had provided to help in the process. But the Essex police did not immediately confirm that they had received the images.
All 39 bodies have been moved from the truck at Tilbury Docks to Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford for autopsies, the police said on Saturday.
Three other people have been detained in the investigation: a man and a woman from Warrington, England, both 38, along with a 48-year-old man from Northern Ireland at Stansted Airport in England. They were arrested this past week on suspicion of conspiracy to traffic people and manslaughter, and remain in custody.
Officials have been trying to piece together a timeline to trace the path of the truck, find out why the 39 ended up in the refrigerated container and how they had lost their lives.
The authorities said the cab unit of the truck had entered Britain via Holyhead on Oct. 20, having traveling from Dublin. The trailer had traveled from Zeebrugge, Belgium, to the port of Purfleet, England, around 12:30 a.m. on Oct. 23. The cab and trailer left the port shortly after 1.05 a.m., the police said.
Someone called the authorities to an industrial park in Essex shortly before 1:40 a.m. last Wednesday, and an ambulance service discovered the 39 bodies in the trailer.
On Saturday, Belgian news outlets reported that the police there were on the trail of the driver who had transported the 39 people on the continental leg of their journey after obtaining CCTV images of his vehicle from cameras at Zeebrugge.
Yonette Joseph reported from London, and Ed O’Loughlin from Dublin. Elian Peltier contributed reporting from London, and Matthew Sedacca from New York.