Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
ROBINSON ‘WORKED FOR GLOBAL SMUGGLING RING’
Lorry driver facing 39 manslaughter charges appears in court
A LORRY driver accused of the manslaughter of 39 migrants was part of a “global smuggling ring”, a court has heard.
Maurice Robinson, 25, was arrested after the bodies of eight women and 31 men
were found in the refrigerated trailer attached to his Scania cab in an industrial park in Grays, Essex, in the early hours of October 23.
Robinson, from Co Armagh and known as Mo, appeared at Chelmsford Magistrates Court via video link yesterday.
Police initially believed the 39 were all Chinese nationals but Vietnamese men and women are now feared to be among the dead and other nationalities may also be involved.
All of the bodies have been moved from the truck in Tilbury Docks to Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, for postmortems to be carried out.
It is understood very few had identification documents, forcing investigations to rely on features such as fingerprints, scars and tattoos to try and trace their families.
Robinson is charged with 39 counts of manslaughter of persons unknown, conspiracy to traffic people between December 1, 2018, and October 24, 2019, and conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration between the same dates.
The human trafficking charge and the unlawful immigration charge both relate to the 39 bodies found in the lorry.
He was further charged with one count of acquiring criminal property and one count of concealing criminal property, both between the same dates.
At Robinson’s brief court appearance, a prosecutor described the conspiracy charges as “a global ring” involving “the movement of a large number of illegal immigrants into the UK”.
The defendant was dressed in a grey prison tracksuit and spoke only to give his name, his address as Laurel Drive in Craigavon, and his nationality as British.
Robinson will next appear at the Old Bailey on November 25 for a plea and trial preparation hearing.
District Judge Timothy King remanded him in custody, saying: “You have heard the nature of the allegations you face and the majority of these can only be dealt with in the crown court.
“I therefore allocate all matters to the Central Criminal Court on November 25 and you will be required to enter your pleas on that occasion.”
Robinson’s solicitor Julian
Hayes made no application for bail.