Essex lorry deaths: Dad learned of son's fate on social media

The father of a 15-year-old boy who was one of 39 people to die in a lorry trailer said he learned of his son's death through social media.

Nguyen Huy Hung died in the sealed container en route from Belgium to Purfleet, Essex, in October 2019.

His father, Nguyen Huy Tung, said the family could not believe it until "we saw his body by our own eyes" at the hospital.

Eight men are being sentenced for their role in the people-smuggling operation.

The 39 Vietnamese migrants, aged 15 to 44, were sealed inside the container for at least 12 hours.

The Old Bailey heard how it became a "tomb" as temperatures reached an "unbearable" 38.5C (101F).

The people trapped inside had used a metal pole to try to punch through the roof, but only managed to dent the interior.

At a sentencing hearing set to last three days in front of Mr Justice Sweeney, some of their final desperate phone messages were played in court.

In one message, a man spoke with ragged breaths as he apologised to his family.

"I can't breathe," he said. "I want to come back to my family. Have a good life."

In the background, a voice could be heard pleading: "Come on everyone. Open up, open up."

Prosecutor Jonathan Polnay read out statements from the victims' families, and the mother of another 15-year-old who died, Dinh Dinh Binh, said her family had "not been able to get back to our normal life yet".

"Our economic conditions and work are negatively affected," she said. "We have had to sell some properties of the family to afford our life."

Tran Hai Loc and his wife Nguyen Thi Van, both 35, were found huddled together in the trailer, and left behind two children, aged six and four.

The children's grandfather, Tran Dinh Thanh, said: "At the moment their children are very small - this incident will affect their future.

"Every day, when they come home from school they always look at the photos of their parents on the altar. The decease of both parents is a big loss to them."

Phan Thi Thanh, 41, had sold the family home and left her son with his godmother before setting off on the journey.

Her son, who is now being looked after by his father in the UK, said he felt "very heartbroken with mum not around".

Haulier boss Ronan Hughes, 41, of Tyholland, County Monaghan, Ireland, was described as a ringleader of the operation. He closed his eyes as the phone messages were played to the court. Other defendants hung their heads.

Hughes had previously admitted manslaughter, as had 26-year-old lorry driver Maurice Robinson, from County Armagh, who discovered the bodies in the trailer.

Eamonn Harrison, 24, of Newry, County Down, who dropped off the trailer at Zeebrugge port, and people-smuggler Gheorghe Nica, 43, were convicted of the same charge by a jury.

They will be sentenced alongside Christopher Kennedy, 24, from County Armagh, Valentin Calota, 38, from Birmingham, Alexandru-Ovidiu Hanga, 28, of Hobart Road, Tilbury, Essex, and Gazmir Nuzi, 43, of Tottenham, north London, who were convicted for their role in the smuggling.

Mr Polnay said: "These defendants were party to a sophisticated, long-running and profitable conspiracy to smuggle [mainly] Vietnamese migrants to the UK, in the back of lorries, in a deliberate and intentional breach of border control."

The fee was between £10,000 and £13,000 for each migrant, for the "VIP route", the court heard.

Mr Polnay said seven smuggling trips were identified between May 2018 and 23 October 2019, but there was "an irresistible inference that there were more events than those that were fortuitously detected".

The hearing continues.

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