Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Essex driver: I was naive & gullible over migrant load
Harrison, 23, gives evidence
A NORTHERN Irish lorry driver accused of transporting 39 migrants to their deaths has told jurors he was “naive and gullible”.
Eamonn Harrison allegedly successfully dropped off two loads of people at Zeebrugge in Belgium before the Vietnamese people died in his trailer en route to Essex on October 22 last year.
Giving evidence at the Old Bailey, the 23-year-old, from Co Down, denied people smuggling, saying he only agreed to load stolen lorry parts for his boss
Ronan Hughes because he owed him after drunkenly writing off one of his trucks.
He has claimed a Romanian he knew as Alex, AKA Petrisor Zgarcea, was Hughes’ “man on the continent” and he went for a walk when people were loaded on his trailer without his knowledge on two occasions.
O n O c t o b e r 1 8 , a d eliv e r y of macaroons and bakewell tarts, which were transported in the same trailer as people, were rejected due to human contamination. Prosecutor Bill Emlyn
Jones told Harrison: “You have dreamt up stolen lorry parts because on this night a load of illegal immigrants were smuggled in your trailer.”
Harri s on re pli ed it was “without my knowledge”.
The prosecutor said: “That load when it got to the UK was rejected because of human contamination.”
He asked what Harrison talked about in a seven minute and
36 second call with
Hughes on October 18. Harrison said: “I cannot remember exactly.
“He did tell me the load had been rejected and the trailer was coming back to me.” Harrison, left, has denied manslaughter and being involved in a wider peoplesmuggling operation.
Jurors have heard Hughes, 41, of Co Armagh, has admitted hi s involvement in the tragedy.