Lorry deaths:Now a driver is charged over Zeebrugge link
A TRUCKER alleged to have dropped a container full of migrants at a dock before they were found dead appeared in court yesterday charged with 39 counts of manslaughter.
Lorry driver Eamon Harrison, 22, appeared in court in Dublin accused of delivering the refrigerated trailer to the Belgian port of Zeebrugge before its doomed journey to Britain.
It was picked up in Purfleet, Essex, from a cargo ferry by Northern Irish trucker Maurice ‘Mo’ Robinson, 25, who also faces 39 counts of manslaughter.
Harrison, from County Down, Northern Ireland, was apprehended in Ireland under a European Arrest Warrant.
He was already in custody on an unrelated domestic matter and faces extradition to face proceedings in the UK. Harrison also faces accusations of conspiracy to commit human trafficking and conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration. The bodies of the migrants were found in the back of the trailer on an industrial estate in Grays, Essex, in the early hours of October 23. Essex Police said last night the 31 men and eight women are all believed to hail from Vietnam, where two people were arrested yesterday.
Harrison appeared in court as Essex Police urged two brothers wanted over the deaths to hand themselves in – revealing they had spoken to one by telephone.
Stepping up the manhunt for Ronan, 40, and Christopher Hughes, 34, Detective Chief Superintendent Daniel Stoten said officers had been in contact with the elder brother ‘recently’.
It is thought haulage boss Ronan called ‘police shortly after news of
Robinson’s arrest was made public. A source said it appeared Ronan – who also goes by the name ‘Rowan’ – was ‘trying to establish how much and what information the police had at that time’.
‘He said he needed to talk to someone about Mo Robinson and claimed Robinson was legit and had nothing to with anything illegal and knew nothing about the cargo,’ the source told Belfast Live. On October 24, after being informed of Ronan’s suspected involvement, the Mail approached him at his new-build home in County Monaghan. He told the reporter to leave the area immediately.
Three other people arrested in connection with the incident – two men aged 38 and 46 and a 38-year-old woman – have been released on bail.