U.K. sentences 4 men for 39 truck deaths
LONDON — Four people-smugglers convicted of killing 39 people from Vietnam who died in the back of a container truck as it was shipped to England were sentenced Friday to between 13 and 27 years in prison.
The victims, between the ages of 15 and 44, were found in October 2019 inside a refrigerated container that had traveled by ferry from Belgium to the eastern England port of Purfleet. The migrants had paid smugglers thousands of dollars to take them on risky journeys to what they hoped would be better lives abroad.
Instead, judge Nigel Sweeney said, “all died in what must have been an excruciatingly painful death” by suffocation.
The judge sentenced Romanian mechanic Gheorghe Nica, 43, described by prosecutors as the ringleader, to 27 years. Northern Irish truck driver Eamonn Harrison, 24, who drove the container to the Belgian port of Zeebrugge, received an 18-year sentence.
Trucker Maurice Robinson, 26, who picked up the container in England, was sentenced to 13 years and 4 months in prison, while haulage company boss Ronan Hughes, 41, was jailed for 20 years.
Prosecutors said all the men were part of a gang that charged about $17,000 per person to transport migrants in trailers through the Channel Tunnel or by boat.
Jurors heard harrowing evidence about the final hours of the victims, who tried to call Vietnam’s emergency number to summon help as air in the container ran out. Some recorded goodbye messages to their families.