Essex lorry deaths: Driver made call about bodies in trailer

The bodies of 39 Vietnamese nationals were discovered in a refrigerated trailer on 23 October last year

A people smuggler has told a jury a lorry driver phoned him to say: "I have a problem here - dead bodies in the trailer."

Gheorge Nica, 43, denies any role in the deaths of the Vietnamese nationals, who were found in Grays, Essex, on 23 October 2019, the Old Bailey has heard.

He admits some people-smuggling crimes, but said he had been unaware any migrants were in the trailer in Grays.

Mr Nica described the moment he knew things had gone "very, very bad".

The migrants, aged 15 to 44, suffocated in a sealed trailer en route from Zeebrugge in Belgium to Purfleet, Essex.

Mr Nica said he called driver Maurice Robinson at 01:00, having agreed for him to park the lorry at a yard in Orsett at that time.

The bodies were found when the container was opened in Essex

"I say 'Well. What's going on? Are you coming or not?'," Mr Nica told the jury.

"And he just said 'I don't know, I don't know'.

"I said 'listen, are you OK there?' And I thought in my mind he might be stopped by police or customs."

The jury heard Mr Robinson had called Mr Nica back 10 minutes later.

"I said 'Are you still coming?'

"[He said] 'I don't know. I have a problem here - dead bodies in the trailer."

Aftab Jafferjee QC, defending, asked: "What was your reaction to that?"

Mr Nica replied: "I said 'listen, what do you mean dead bodies?'

"He said 'yeah, there are too many'. I said 'ring the ambulance, ring the police, do not move at all'."

On what he did next, Nica said: "I was sitting in the car and it was still very, very bad."

The next day, he travelled to Romania because he was "scared" of a "big, big investigation". He had been involved in previous smuggling and had made phone calls regarding the fatal shipment.

Under cross-examination, prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones said Mr Nica's version of events was "ridiculous".

He said: "You said 'everyone trying to escape from this situation is just telling stories'.

"You have here in one sentence exactly described your own situation."

Mr Nica, of Basildon, and lorry driver Eamonn Harrison, 23, of County Down, deny 39 counts of manslaughter.

Irish haulier boss Ronan Hughes, 41, and Mr Robinson, 26, have previously admitted manslaughter.

Mr Harrison, lorry driver Christopher Kennedy, 24, of County Armagh, and Valentin Calota, 37, of Birmingham, have denied being part of a wider people-smuggling conspiracy, which Mr Nica has admitted he was involved in.

The trial continues.