Essex lorry deaths: Driver denies knowing migrants were in van

The victims were discovered when the container was opened at Purfleet in Essex

An alleged people-smuggler has denied knowing that a dozen or more migrants were getting into the back of his van.

Valentin Calota, 38, is accused of being involved in a plot linked to the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants in a lorry container on 23 October 2019.

He told the Old Bailey he believed he was driving boxes of cigarettes from Essex to London on 18 October.

Giving evidence, Mr Calota, from Birmingham, said he would not have agreed to transporting migrants.

He said he did not hear or see people in the van during the 30km (18-mile) journey to London as he wore headphones, smoked with the window open and had the radio on.

Cross-examining, Jonathan Polnay said: "I'm going to suggest it must have been absolutely blindingly obvious as you sat in that van there was a lot of people - a dozen - getting in the back of it."

Mr Calota replied: "I did not see. I felt the van moving, I heard voices and noises."

• Lorry driver 'called soon after 39 bodies found'

• Lorry driver 'shocked' at death of 39 migrants

• Lorry driver 'told load was cigarettes not people'

Mr Calota said he assumed it was the van being loaded with cigarettes.

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

Gheorghe Nica, 43, of Basildon, Essex, and Eamonn Harrison, 23, of County Down, have denied 39 counts of manslaughter.

Mr Calota, Mr Harrison and Christopher Kennedy, 24, of County Armagh, have denied being involved in a people smuggling plot, which Mr Nica has admitted.

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

The trial continues.