Image source, Essex Police

The court is told how Nica and Draghici gave driver Maurice Robinson (pictured) his instructions on the night of the tragic run.

Emlyn Jones, prosecuting, said: "We accept that the role played in the conspiracy by Nica was more significant than that of Draghici.

"So Nica is above Draghici in the pecking order."

Robinson was jailed for 13 years and four months, having collected the trailer and opened it at the Waterglade Industrial Estate, Grays, to find the migrants dead.

Jeremy Britton
Reporting from the Old Bailey

The court hears that Draghici has accepted being involved in the following specific events of people-smuggling:

• On 11 October 2019, when 15 migrants were said by a witness to have been smuggled
• On 18 October 2019, when another witness, Marie Andrews, said she saw migrants being unloaded
• On 23 October 2019, when 39 Vietnamese migrants were found dead in a the trailer in Essex, being driven by Maurice Robinson

Jeremy Britton
BBC News, Old Bailey

The court has also heard that the migrants paid a fee of £10,000 rising to £13,000 for the "VIP" route.

In those instances, the driver of the lorry was aware of the presence of smuggled migrants inside the trailer attached to his cab, the court is told.

Jeremy Britton
BBC News, Old Bailey

The court hears that Draghici's role was to be "the right hand man" to Gheorghe Nica.

Draghici was "plainly trusted" by Nica and in a different category to the drivers who were recruited for one-off trips and therefore Draghici was closer to the organisers of the trafficking ring.

Image source, Essex Police

Jeremy Britton
BBC News, Old Bailey

As a general overview, migrants were loaded into the trailers that were transported on ferries to the UK, the court is told.

Image source, Essex Police

The trailers were usually collected and driven to Collingwood Farm - a remote location in Orsett, Essex and from there the migrants were unloaded and driven on to their ultimate destination, prosecutor Mr Emlyn Jones said.

Jeremy Britton
BBC News, Old Bailey

Opening the facts of the case, prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones KC said the victims had suffocated in an air tight container en route across the Channel.

"The prosecution case is that Draghici became party to a sophisticated, long-running and highly profitable conspiracy to smuggle illegal migrants to the United Kingdom, in the back of lorries, in a deliberate and intentional breach of border control," he said.

He said Marius Draghici was recruited by fellow Romanian Gheorghe Nica, who was previously convicted and jailed for 27 years for his involvement in the deaths, and they became "entirely inseparable".

Image source, Essex Police

Essex Police previously said Draghici's role was to be involved in the onward transportation of the migrants once they arrived in the UK.

He fled the country after the bodies were discovered and was eventually detained in the Romanian capital Bucharest before being extradited to the UK in late 2022.

Jeremy Britton
BBC News, the Old Bailey

The defendant, Marius Mihai Draghici, is sitting in the dock wearing a navy open-necked shirt.

He has spoken to confirm his name and is sitting next to a Romanian interpreter.

Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC tells the court that this case involved the "tragic" killing of 39 Vietnamese men and women who were attempting to cross the English channel in October 2019.

They were killed in the course of crossing by members of an organised crime group of people traffickers.

The victims had effectively suffocated to death in an air-tight container, he said.

"Their last few hours must have entailed unimaginable suffering and anguish," he added.

Image source, Essex Police

A sensor inside the trailer told its own story of a relentless rise in temperature for those trapped inside.

The ship left Zeebrugge in the middle of the afternoon, bound for the port of Purfleet-on-Thames, in Essex.

During the voyage, the temperature rose from the high 20s all the way up to 38.5C (101F), by which point oxygen levels had slumped and the air was too toxic for human life.

The migrants inside the lorry trailer had stripped to their underwear in the sweltering heat and tried to bash their way out of the trailer's roof. Officers discovered a metal post on the floor of the sealed container.

Some of those inside had been told they were getting a "VIP" service and had paid more than £10,000 for the journey.

The stories of the 39 show their journeys from Vietnam were often done in stages.

Many travelled to other countries in Europe, such as Poland and Russia, before being drawn by the prospect of finding better-paid work in the UK, a lure that saw them move west to France or Belgium before crossing the North Sea from Zeebrugge to Purfleet on the Thames estuary.

Some wanted to work in nail salons while one of the 15-year-olds who died said he would find work in an illegal cannabis farm.

Many of the 28 men, eight women and three boys found dead in the trailer were in Paris the day before their deaths.

From the French capital, they had made their way to the town of Bierne, near Dunkirk in north-east France.

It was here that a number of people were seen being delivered by taxi to an agricultural shed, before later clambering into a lorry.

Image source, PA Media

In the early hours of 23 October 2019, lorry driver Maurice Robinson pulled his articulated lorry over on a largely deserted Essex industrial park.

When he opened the trailer doors he found 39 people, including 10 teenagers, dead.

Panicked he made calls to other members of the people-trafficking ring he was involved in before eventually calling 999.

It sparked an international investigation into an organised crime gang which has resulted in multiple convictions so far.

Image source, PA

Thirty-nine people perished in the trailer found on an industrial estate in Grays, Essex, on 23 October 2019.

The names of those who died are:

• Pham Thi Tra My, a 26-year-old woman from Ha Tinh
• Nguyen Dinh Luong, a 20-year-old man from Ha Tinh
• Nguyen Huy Phong, a 35-year-old man from Ha Tinh
• Vo Nhan Du, a 19-year-old man from Ha Tinh
• Tran Manh Hung, a 37-year-old man from Ha Tinh
• Tran Khanh Tho, a 18-year-old man from Ha Tinh
• Vo Van Linh, a 25-year-old man from Ha Tinh
• Nguyen Van Nhan, a 33-year-old man from Ha Tinh
• Bui Phan Thang, a 37-year-old man from Ha Tinh
• Nguyen Huy Hung, a 15-year-old boy from Ha Tinh
• Tran Thi Tho, a 21-year-old woman from Nghe An
• Bui Thi Nhung, a 19-year-old woman from Nghe An
• Vo Ngoc Nam, a 28-year-old man from Nghe An
• Nguyen Dinh Tu, a 26-year-old man from Nghe An
• Le Van Ha, a 30-year-old man from Nghe An
• Tran Thi Ngoc, a 19-year-old woman from Nghe An
• Nguyen Van Hung, a 33-year-old man from Nghe An
• Hoang Van Tiep, a 18-year-old man from Nghe An
• Cao Tien Dung, a 37-year-old man from Nghe An
• Cao Huy Thanh, a 37-year-old man from Nghe An
• Tran Thi Mai Nhung, a 18-year-old woman from Nghe An
• Nguyen Minh Quang, a 20-year-old man from Nghe An
• Le Ngoc Thanh, a 44-year-old man from Dien Chau
• Pham Thi Ngoc Oanh, a 28-year-old woman from Nghe An
• Hoang Van Hoi, a 24-year-old man from Nghe An
• Nguyen Tho Tuan, a 25-year-old man from Nghe An
• Dang Huu Tuyen, a 22-year-old man from Nghe An
• Nguyen Trong Thai, a 26-year-old man from Nghe An
• Nguyen Van Hiep, a 24-year-old man from Nghe An
• Nguyen Thi Van, a 35-year-old woman from Nghe An
• Tran Hai Loc, a 35-year-old man from Nghe An
• Duong Minh Tuan, a 27-year-old man from Quang Binh
• Nguyen Ngoc Ha, a 32-year-old man from Quang Binh
• Nguyen Tien Dung, a 33-year-old man from Quang, Binh
• Phan Thi Thanh, a 41-year-old woman from Hai Phong
• Nguyen Ba Vu Hung, a 34-year-old man from Thua Thien-Hue
• Dinh Dinh Thai Quyen, a 18-year-old man from Hai Phong
• Tran Ngoc Hieu, a 17-year-old boy from Hai Duong
• Dinh Dinh Binh, a 15-year-old boy from Hai Phong

Image source, Getty Images

Marius Mihai Draghici, a Romanian national, is to be sentenced for the manslaughter of 39 Vietnamese migrants who were found suffocated in a sealed lorry trailer, found in Grays in Essex in 2019.

The 50-year-old is due to be sentenced at the Old Bailey in London by Mr Justice Garnham.

Draghici admitted 39 counts of manslaughter and one count of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration at a hearing in June.