The driver of the truck aboard which 39 Vietnamese migrants were found dead a year ago near London waited 23 minutes before calling the police, the prosecutor detailed Tuesday (October 27) during the trial in London.
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Maurice Robinson, 26, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter, discovered the bodies in the early hours of October 23, 2019 in an industrial area east of London.
He had recovered the trailer, coming from Zeebrugge (Belgium) at the port of Purfleet (south-east of England), before opening the doors not far from there, in Thurrock.
Inside, he discovered the bodies of the migrants, including two 15-year-old teenagers, who suffocated in this confined space, where the temperature reached up to 38.5 ° C.
Instead of immediately calling the police, the driver made several phone calls to other members of the traffic, the prosecutor explained at the hearing in the Old Bailey Criminal Court in London.
Four men have been tried since this week in the Old Bailey Criminal Court for manslaughter or for helping illegal immigration.
The two main suspects, the driver of the truck in which the bodies were found Maurice Robinson and a Northern Irishman suspected of organizing the movement of the drivers involved in the trafficking, have pleaded guilty and will be the subject of a later hearing to determine their sentence.
