Essex lorry deaths: Marius Draghici jailed for more than 12 years

A people trafficker has been jailed for 12 years and seven months over the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants who died in a lorry container.

Marius Draghici, 50, from Romania, admitted 39 counts of manslaughter and one count of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.

The bodies were discovered on an industrial estate in Grays, Essex, in October 2019.

The Old Bailey heard conditions in the trailer must have been "unspeakable".

Marius Draghici was referred to as the "right-hand man" to one of the ringleaders

The judge, Mr Justice Garnham, said Draghici "was a small but essential cog in the wheels of this criminal conspiracy" that "put would-be migrants at risk of death".

He was also sentenced to four years and two months in prison for the unlawful immigration offence, to be served concurrently.

The bodies were discovered in the refrigerated trailer on 23 October 2019

Draghici was in charge of the migrants' onward transportation in the UK - acting as a driver - and prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones KC described him as the "right hand man" to one of the ringleaders, Gheorghe Nica.

Fellow Romanian Nica, of Basildon, Essex, is one of four men already convicted of manslaughter - and one of 11 in total now jailed in connection with the deaths.

• As it happened: Live reporting from the Old Bailey sentencing

The victims included 28 men, eight women and three children varying between the ages of 15 and 44.

They had paid a fee of £10,000, rising to £13,000, for what was promised as a "VIP" route to Europe and the hope of better-paid work.

The migrants travelled on 22 October, 2019, from Paris to Bierne, a town in northern France, where they were then seen being taken by taxis to a shed on an isolated farm.

They later clambered into a lorry, which was seen on CCTV footage making its way across France towards the Belgian port of Zeebrugge, where it was loaded onto a ferry bound for Purfleet-on-Thames, Essex.

Temperatures rose to 38.5C (101F) in the container, by which point oxygen levels had slumped and the air was too toxic for human life.

They suffocated to death, dying from asphyxia and carbon monoxide poisoning.

Many of the victims hoped to find better paid work in the UK

Audio recordings from the victims' final voice messages to loved ones were played to the Old Bailey, which the judge described as "pitiful".

The HGV driver Maurice Robinson, of Craigavon, County Armagh, opened the trailer up on the industrial estate in the early hours of 23 October and discovered their bodies - before eventually calling 999.

Draghici fled the country but was eventually detained in the Romanian capital Bucharest before being extradited in late 2022.

He admitted to having been at the isolated Collingwood Farm in Orsett, Essex, where migrants were dropped off during previous trafficking operations on 11 and 18 October.

Victim impact statements from relatives were read in court, including the account of trained hairdresser Nguyen Huy Hung, 15, who paid £12,000 to travel from France to the UK.

Married couple Tran Hai Loc and Nguyen Thi Van, who had two young children still in Vietnam, planned to work as fruit pickers in Hungary but unexpectedly decided to travel to the UK.

Their family said they still owed $14,000 (£10,860) and that life was "very difficult" without them.

[Left to right] Eamonn Harrison, Ronan Hughes, Gheorghe Nica and Maurice Robinson were all jailed for manslaughter in January 2021

Defence barrister Gillian Jones KC said Draghici did not play a managerial role in the operation, and was "under direction", and he fled the country because he was "terrified" and "horrified" by what happened.

Mr Justice Garnham accepted that Draghici felt "genuine remorse" for what he did.

Det Ch Supt Stuart Hooper of Essex Police said: "This has never been about being triumphant, this has always been about delivering justice for 39 families who had their worlds ripped apart."

National Crime Agency deputy director Tom Dowdall said: "It was an appalling example of just how callous people smuggling gangs are, who are prepared to risk the lives of those they transport for financial gain."