Autopsies to begin on 39 truck victims
GRAYS: British police were still questioning the driver of a truck in which 39 people, believed to be Chinese nationals, were found dead this week as postmortem examinations of some of the victims began yesterday.
The 25-year-old driver from Northern Ireland was arrested on suspicion of murder after the grim discovery of the bodies in the back of his refrigerated truck on an industrial estate near London early on Wednesday morning.
He has not been formally identified but a source familiar with the investigation said he was Mo Robinson from the Portadown area of the British province. Detectives will decide later whether to charge him with an offence, release him or ask a court for more time to quiz him.
On Thursday, British authorities moved 11 of the victims — 31 men and eight women — to a hospital mortuary from a secure location at docks near to the industrial estate in Grays about 30km east of London where the bodies were found.
Police have said the process of identifying those who died would take some time while autopsies were carried out to determine how exactly they died.
“This is the largest investigation of its kind Essex Police has ever had to conduct and it is likely to take some considerable time,” Essex Chief Constable Ben-Julian Harrington said.
His force has said their priority was ensuring respect and compassion for the victims.
The Chinese embassy in London said it had sent a team to Essex to meet with local police.
The focus of the police investigation is on the movement of the trailer prior to its arrival at Purfleet docks near Grays little more than an hour before the bodies were found and who was behind the suspected human trafficking.
Irish company Global Trailer Rentals said it owned the trailer and had rented it out on Oct 15. The firm said it was unaware of what it was to be used for.
The refrigeration unit had travelled to Britain from Zeebrugge in Belgium and the town’s chairman, Dirk de Fauw, said he believed the victims died in the trailer before it arrived there.