Essex lorry deaths: Caolan Gormley guilty of trafficking offence

Caolan Gormley stood trial at the Old Bailey, accused of being involved in the unlawful immigration plot

A haulier linked to the people smugglers responsible for the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants has been found guilty of an immigration offence.

Caolan Gormley, 26, was found guilty of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration at the Old Bailey.

The bodies were found in a lorry trailer near Purfleet, Essex, on 23 October 2019.

The jury heard Gormley, of Caledon, Co Tyrone, had "close dealings" with the traffickers overseeing the fatal trip.

He is the 11th defendant to be convicted in the UK in connection with the deaths and police described it as the "final guilty verdict".

Gormley is due to be sentenced on Thursday.

The Vietnamese migrants were transported by ferry from Belgium, before the trailer was opened near Purfleet

The container arrived by sea from Zeebrugge, Belgium, at 00:30 BST before being collected by a tractor unit half an hour later.

The people inside 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.

Gormley was involved in three previous smuggling operations that month on the 11, 14 and 18 October but there was no evidence he was directly involved on the night of 22 October, police said.

The two-week trial heard he was an associate of one of the smuggling ringleaders, Ronan Hughes, who he had known since he was a teenager.

• The supposed 'VIP' journey that killed 39 people

• People smuggler ordered to pay families £65,000

• Men jailed for killing 39 migrants in lorry

Hughes and a Romanian national, Gheorghe Nica, had a network of drivers who were "willing and able" to drive lorry loads of migrants from Europe into the UK, the prosecution said.

Gormley, who ran a small haulage business, passed on messages from Hughes to one of his own drivers, Christopher Kennedy, who was involved in transporting the trailers full of migrants.

On 23 October, the trailer had been collected by a different driver, Maurice Robinson, who discovered the bodies.

Thirty nine people died in the back of a trailer as it crossed the North Sea between Zeebrugge and the UK

Giving evidence in his defence, Gormley told jurors he was in "shock" and "total disbelief" when he heard the victims were dead.

He claimed that he believed he was only involved in smuggling illegal alcohol into the UK.

The jury deliberated for one hour and 15 minutes and Gormley was remanded in custody.

Det Ch Insp Louise Metcalfe, from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, described the conviction as the "final guilty verdict".

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