A British lorry driver pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of 39 people on Friday in the case surrounding the discovery of dead Vietnamese migrants in a lorry container last October. Ronan Hughes, 40, of Co Armagh in Northern Ireland, entered his plea at the Old Bailey.
He was charged with 39 counts of manslaughter after the bodies of 39 Vietnamese men, women and children were found suffocated in the trailer of a lorry on an industrial estate in Grays in the early hours of 23 October 2019.
Hughes also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration between 1 May 2018 and 24 October 2019. Among the victims discovered in the container were 10 teenagers, the youngest of whom were two 15-year-old boys. The oldest person found deceased was 44.