Two convicted over UK truck deaths

A van could be seen leaving a London court on Monday after two people-smugglers were convicted over the deaths of 39 Vietnamese people whose bodies were found in the back of a truck in southeastern England.

A jury at London’s Central Criminal Court found Romanian mechanic Gheorghe Nica, 43, and Northern Irish truck driver Eamonn Harrison, 24, guilty of the deaths of the Vietnamese nationals, who were discovered dead in the English town of Grays.

"Today, we have secured justice for 39 innocent people and their loved ones," said Essex Police Chief Constable Ben-Julian Harrington.

"We've caught and convicted the ringleaders of the criminal group, which brought them to our country," he added.

"They thought that they could hide and lie and they thought that they could get away with it. Today, we proved them wrong."

The victims, aged between 15 and 44, were found on October 23, 2019, inside a refrigerated container that had arrived by ferry from Belgium.

They came from impoverished villages and had paid people-smugglers thousands of dollars to take them on risky journeys to what they hoped would be better lives abroad.

Jurors heard harrowing evidence about the final hours of the victims, who tried to call Vietnam's emergency number to summon help as air in the container ran out.

When they could not get a mobile phone signal, some recorded goodbye messages to their families.

The trapped migrants - who included a bricklayer, a restaurant worker, a nail bar technician, a budding beautician and a university graduate - used a metal pole to try to punch through the roof of the refrigerated container, but only managed to dent it.