Essex lorry deaths: Lorry driver 'shocked' at migrant discovery

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

A lorry driver accused of being part of a people-smuggling ring said he was "shocked" at the discovery of 39 dead Vietnamese in a trailer, the Old Bailey heard.

Christopher Kennedy allegedly collected trailers of people from Purfleet, Essex, on 11 and 18 October last year.

On October 23, another driver who collected a trailer which had travelled the same route found the 39 bodies.

Mr Kennedy denies being involved in a people-smuggling plot.

The 24-year-old told the court that he first found out about the find after his boss, Caolan Gormley, sent him a WhatsApp picture of the truck.

Mr Kennedy, who was dropping off a consignment of wine at Tilbury, then discovered the driver had been Maurice Robinson.

Asked by his barrister James Scobie QC: "Now that the news is out what were you thinking in respect of these events?"

Mr Kennedy replied: "I was not really thinking much to be honest. Just shocked it happened."

Victims' names were placed on a wall as part of a memorial shrine in Hackney on the first anniversary of their deaths last month

He then had a text message conversation with a friend who asked him who owned the Bulgarian registered truck attached to the trailer.

Mr Kennedy responded that it was Irish haulier boss Ronan Hughes.

'No coincidence'

Then, in a response to an expletive from his friend, Mr Kennedy said "some mess".

His friend asked, "What happened?" to which Mr Kennedy replied "dunno, must have been [too many] and run out of air".

"End of the Road for him & drive," his friend sent in reply, referring to Mr Hughes and the driver Mr Robinson.

To which Mr Kennedy replied, "[Ronan Hughes] will never see the light of day again".

The defendant told jurors he did not know what had happened but the messages were "just what I thought happened because it's a refrigerated trailer, sealed air-tight".

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

The court also heard in October Mr Kennedy was stopped at the Channel Tunnel entrance, where French border officials ejected 20 Vietnamese people from his trailer.

Two of the 39 Vietnamese people found dead in Purfleet were identified as having been on Mr Kennedy's trailer on 14 October.

Cross-examining Mr Kennedy, Bill Emlyn Jones said this was "no coincidence".

He said: "Those two loads must be connected and the connection must be whoever it was organised these loads of illegal migrants."

The defendant agreed.

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Mr Kennedy, lorry driver Eamonn Harrison, 23, of Co Down, and Valentin Calota, 37, of Birmingham, have all denied being involved in a people-smuggling plot.

Mr Harrison and Gheorghe Nica, 43, of Basildon, Essex, deny 39 counts of manslaughter.

Irish haulier boss Ronan Hughes, 41, and lorry driver Maurice Robinson, 26, have previously admitted manslaughter.

The trial continues.