Harrowing account from officer who found bodies of 39 migrants in lorry
Pc Jack Emerson was one of the first officers on the scene at the tragic incident in Essex last year.
A police officer has shared a harrowing account of how he discovered the bodies of 39 half-naked Vietnamese migrants after they suffocated to death in the back of a lorry trailer.
Pc Jack Emerson was one of the first officers on the scene at the tragic incident in Thurrock, Essex on October 23 last year.
In a statement given to the Old Bailey, he described how he searched through the bodies to check for signs of life as they lay ‘motionless’, but said they were so ‘closely packed’ together, they couldn’t all be checked.
Lorry driver Maurice Robinson, 26, had picked up the trailer from Purfleet docks after it was transported from Zeebrugge in Belgium, the court heard on Wednesday.
He opened the doors to the trailer minutes after leaving Purfleet but drove around and spoke to haulage boss Ronan Hughes and alleged organiser Gheorghe Nica by phone before dialling 999, jurors were told.
PC Emerson said Robinson was ‘just standing there’ and appeared calm when officers arrived at 1.50am.
Describing the scene he found behind the rear trailer door, he said: ‘I could see one of the trailer doors was already open and I could visibly see numerous half-naked bodies in the back of the trailer, lying on the trailer floor motionless.
‘I approached the door of the trailer to further inspect the bodies and it became apparent as I got closer that the entire trailer was full of bodies, and the individuals appeared to be half-naked.
‘Most of them were wearing clothes on their lower half but they all appeared to not be wearing any clothing on their upper half.
‘All of the bodies appeared intact and it was in my opinion that they had not been there for a very long period of time as there was not any visible sign of decomposure. There was however a strange smell coming from the trailer that smelt like chemicals.
‘There was also smoke condensation coming from the rear of the trailer which suggested to me that the trailer was refrigerated.’
Pc Emerson said the driver was arrested on suspicion of murder after a colleague called to ‘get him in cuffs’.
He climbed into the trailer to check if anyone inside had a pulse and found some bodies were still warm, while others appeared to be ‘frothing from the mouth’.
He said: ‘I immediately started scanning the trailer to look for signs of life but there was not. All bodies appeared completely motionless.
‘Due to how packed together the bodies were in the trailer it was not possible to check every body so I made an attempt to check the bodies I could reach.’
The Old Bailey heard earlier how the group of migrants desperately tried to use their phones to call for help as they struggled to breathe.
One person attempted calling the emergency number for the Vietnamese police but could not get through during the trip from Zeebrugge.
Prosecutor Jonathan Polnay said: ‘We know one of the handsets in the trailer belonging to one of the deceased was able to connect to the network in Belgium because we have data from the network company.’
Asked to account for that, Mr Skeith said: ‘I would not say it’s impossible to make a call from the rear of the trailer. All I can report to you, when I carried out my survey, I could not.’
Robinson, 26, and Hughes, 41, have admitted manslaughter, while lorry driver Eamonn Harrison, 23, who dropped the trailer off at Zeebrugge, has denied 39 counts of manslaughter along with Nica, 43.
Harrison, another lorry driver, Christopher Kennedy, 24, of Co Armagh, and Valentin Calota, 37, of Birmingham, have denied being part of a wider people-smuggling conspiracy, which Nica has admitted to.
The Old Bailey also heard how Kennedy exchanged messages with a friend after the 39 migrants, aged 15 to 44, were confirmed dead at 2.40am the same day.
The friend asked: ‘Who’s is the BG yoke got in Essex with the bodies?’ Kennedy named Ronan Hughes, adding: ‘Some mess.’
When questioned on what happened, he replied: ‘Dunno must have been 2 meany and run out of air (sic).’
The friend wrote: ‘End of the road for him and drive’, while Kennedy responded: ‘He never see day light again.’
The prosecution alleges there were two successful people-smuggling runs on October 11 and 18 last year, before the trip that ended in tragedy on October 23.
Cell site data suggested some of the alleged plotters were in the area of Orsett, Essex, at the time migrants were allegedly transferred from trailers for onward transportation to south-east London on the earlier occasions.
Nica’s phone was placed at the same location around the time Robinson discovered the migrants had died, the court heard.
The trial continues.
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