Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I was watching Netflix when they loaded 39 people on to my lorry
Accused ‘agreed to deliver stolen items’
ORDERS Boss Ronan Hughes
SCENE OF HORROR 39 died in lorry trailer
A LORRY driver accused over the deaths of 39 migrants has told jurors he was watching Netflix in bed with the curtains drawn at the time people were allegedly being loaded into his trailer.
Eamonn Harrison, 23, dropped off a sealed container with the Vietnamese victims inside at Zeebrugge in Belgium on October 22 last year, the Old Bailey has heard.
Another driver, Maurice Robinson, 26, picked up the trailer at Purfleet port in Essex and found all 39 men, women and children had suffocated, jurors were told.
Giv i n g e v i d e n c e , Ha r r i s o n , from Mayobridge, Co Down, denied knowing there were people in the container on that day or on two earlier successful people-smuggling trips.
He told jurors he agreed to deal with “stolen goods” because he owed his boss Ronan Hughes over a drink-drive accident in one of his trucks.
On the morning of October 22 l ast year, Harrison had parked his lorry near Bierne in northern France.
He said: “Ronan told me there would be no load of Coca-cola but there would be a load of stolen goods.”
Ronan told me there would be a load of stolen goods EAMONN HARRISON OLD BAILEY YESTERDAY
CURTAINS
The defendant added an eastern European man told him to “close the curtains” and “lie down” once he had moved his lorry.
He did as he was told and watched “a wee bit of Netflix” in bed, Harrison said.
Alisdair Williamson QC, defending, said: “Did you have any idea what you were getting involved with?”
The defendant replied: “No, I did not.” Mr Williamson said: “Mr Harrison, did you, in order to work off your debt to Mr Hughes, agree to human beings to be put in the back of your trailer?”
Harrison stated: “No, I did not.” He added that he had never been t h r e a t e n e d b y Hu g h e s a n d o n l y realised his boss was “knee deep in this thing” when he pleaded guilty.
Harrison denies the manslaughter of 39 migrants and being i nvolved i n a wider people-smuggling operation.
Jurors have heard Hughes, 41, from Silverstream, Tyholland, Co Monaghan, and Robinson, of Craigavon, Co Armagh, have admitted their involvement in the tragedy.