UK - 39 bodies found in lorry container, Essex, 23 Oct 2019 *Guilty* #3

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Are we all sitting down to watch? I am wondering whether we will hear new info. And whether the legal challenge from CH necessitated any edits.
 
I think the programme will have been an eye-opener for people who didn’t follow the news or trial (or WS).

It did a very good job of making it so very real imo.

Absolutely tragedy, and disgusting greed.

ps obviously it always was very real but hopefully you know what I mean
 
Very impressed with the documentary. I thought it was done in very good taste.

It was good how there was a clear focus on emphasising the humanity of the victims and the emotions of the police officers involved. They allowed the sheer scale of loss to do the talking rather than attempting to over sensationalise the evil of the perpetrators as many true crime documentaries do.
 
Yes, very powerful and strong.

At the heart of it, those 39 souls, but so many other victims, gentle hard working families in Vietnam, the police officers who will be haunted for the rest of their days, DCI Stoten who has retired early, families of some of the more minor characters who were caught up. (I thought the degree of co-ercion and power by RH and GN was perhaps a bit light touch)

The compassion and professionalism of the police: the first on the scene who had to overcome their reactions to what was in front of them and consider ‘CPR until confirmed life extinct’ in line with their training.

I hadn’t quite appreciated that GN was already know as a ruthless operator in the industry.

Excellent job by the BBC.

And by DCI Daniel Stoten and team.
 
A man has admitted playing a part in a people-smuggling operation that ended with 39 Vietnamese men, women and children suffocating to death in a refrigerated lorry trailer in Essex.

Dragos Stefan Damian, 28, was arrested in Italy and was extradited in September to stand trial at the Old Bailey in London following the investigation into the migrants’ deaths.

In October 2019, lorry driver Maurice Robinson found the victims’ bodies in the trailer that he had transported from Zeebrugge, Belgium, to Purfleet in Essex, via ferry.

Earlier this year, other members of the people smuggling gang were jailed at the Old Bailey for their involvement.

On Tuesday, Damian appeared at the Old Bailey by video link from Chelmsford prison and pleaded guilty – with the help of an Italian translator – to conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration from May 2018 to October 2019.

Prosecuting lawyer Jonathan Polnay said Damian’s main task in the plan was to pick up migrants, and “allow” others to, from Collingwood Farm in Essex upon the Vietnamese nationals’ arrival in the UK.

Sentencing has been adjourned until 14 January next year before Mr Justice Sweeney.

Earlier this year, another gang member, 38-year-old Valentin Calota, from Birmingham, was jailed for four-and-a-half-years and ordered to pay the Vietnamese victims’ families just over £1,000.

He had been paid £700 plus expenses to drive one vanload of migrants from Essex to London days before the 39 people died.

Calota, who the court heard had benefited by £1,137.29 from the scheme, appeared at the Old Bailey for his confiscation hearing by video link from HMP Huntercombe and was aided by a Romanian interpreter.

Mr Polnay said: “The prosecution had considered submitting to this court the benefit was higher.

“However given we understand Mr Calota is to be deported relatively shortly from this country we consider there to be little if any benefit in an academic exercise in asserting that he had a higher benefit.”

Judge Mark Lucraft QC ordered that the entire sum of £1,137.29 be confiscated and paid as compensation to the victims’ families.

Other gang members are due to face confiscation hearings later this week.

Man admits role in smuggling operation that led to deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants
 
A lorry driver who found the bodies of 39 Vietnamese people in his trailer has to sell his 4×4 vehicle and watch to pay the victims’ families more than £21,000.

On Thursday, Robinson returned to the Old Bailey for a confiscation hearing before Judge Mark Lucraft QC.

The court heard he had benefitted from his criminal lifestyle to the sum of £50,000.

Prosecutor Jonathan Polnay told the court that Robinson only had assets worth a total of £21,262.

They included two accounts, more than £10,000 of equity in a property in Armagh, a 4×4 vehicle worth £2,000 and a £200 watch. Judge Lucraft gave Robinson three months to get the money from the sale of the house, vehicle and watch to pay £21,262 or face eight months in jail. The judge ordered the confiscated cash to be paid as compensation to the families of the 39 victims. Robinson appeared in court by video link from Lowdham Grange jail in Nottinghamshire and spoke only to confirm his identity during the brief hearing. His lawyer, Tyrone Smith QC, told the court that there was no objection to the orders which the prosecution had proposed.

Migrant deaths driver to sell 4×4 and watch to compensate victims’ families
 
It will be interesting to see what assets Hughes is deemed to have.

MR seems surprisingly short on assets / wealth.

As we saw from the footage in the hotel, much money changed hands as cash, so….
 
RH and GN refused permission to appeal their sentences.
People smuggler Ronan Hughes told he cannot appeal jail term over migrant deaths


Absolutely spurious argument about numbers from GN’ defence. He must have known how many people, he had the money for that number, he would have had to arrange transport for that number.

Anyway, To my mind if you lock one single person in an airtight space for your personal gain you are guilty and the sentence for causing that death should be as great as possible.

Even contemplating appealing shows a complete lack of remorse or care about what they did. IMO.
 
I also don't see what Hughes' argument is about his sentence being disproportionate in relation to the other offenders when he was one of the primary ringleaders directing the other offenders. That always carries a harsher sentence.

Clearly no remorse from either of them, but it's to be expected considering they have shown a total lack of respect for human life through their crimes.
 
Man to be extradited to Belgium in connection with Grays lorry deaths

A Vietnamese man will be extradited to Belgium to face charges connected to the deaths of 39 people in a lorry in Essex in 2019.

Alex Tran, 18, is allegedly a member of a smuggling network moving people through France and Belgium to the UK.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) previously said Tran played a "key role" in putting at least 10 migrants in the lorry.

Mr Tran was remanded in custody and has seven days to appeal.

The bodies of the Vietnamese victims were found in a refrigerated lorry trailer after it was transported by ferry from Zeebrugge to Purfleet in Essex, in October 2019.

Mr Tran is suspected of running safe houses in Brussels where they stayed, and organising their onward transport in taxis to a collection point in France, where they were put in the back of the lorry.

He is wanted in Belgium accused of being a member of a criminal organisation involved in the "organisation, facilitation of unauthorised entry and residence, forgery of documents and trafficking".

He was arrested at a petrol station in Middlesbrough in June and his extradition was ordered in a judgement handed down at Westminster Magistrates' Court.
 
A Vietnamese migrant and alleged gang leader accused of sending 39 of his own countrymen to their deaths in the back of an overcrowded lorry discovered in Essex in 2019 has gone on trial in Belgium today.

Vo Vang Hong, 45, is facing 15 years in jail for allegedly running a safehouse located above a pizzeria in Anderlecht, a district of Brussels, that many of the migrants passed through before being locked inside the refrigerated lorry trailer that would ultimately become their tomb.

He appeared in court in Bruges today alongside 22 other defendants accused of being part of the gang or working for it. Twelve of the defendants are also Vietnamese or Vietnamese-Belgian, and are alleged to have worked as safehouse guards or grocery shoppers who fetched food for migrants being smuggled.

Ten of the accused - three Belgians, six Moroccans and an Armenian - were taxi drivers in Brussels and are accused of ferrying people to the safe house.

Collectively, they are accused of involvement in 'several dozen smuggling activities' that illegally brought at least 100 people to the UK going back to September 2018.

Essex lorry deaths: 23 alleged smugglers go on trial in Belgium | Daily Mail Online
 
I remember the day of the crash that killed Nike's daughters. I worked in the area and l was stuck in traffic. So sad to later hear they died after being here for a day. Fate is cruel.



























































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































Bit
 
Yes you are right, they were not married. Just wondered if she stuck with him after losing their home. He has seen the children anyway according to MSM
 
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