Jury picked in people-smuggling trial linked to container deaths of 39 migrants

By Emily Pennink, PA Old Bailey Correspondent

A jury panel has been selected in the trial of four men accused of being part of a people-smuggling ring linked to the deaths of 39 migrants.

The bodies of the Vietnamese nationals were discovered inside a lorry container shortly after it arrived in Purfleet, Essex, on a ferry in the early hours of October 23 last year.

Among the men, women and children were 10 teenagers, two of them 15-year-old boys.

An inquest has heard their medical cause of death was asphyxia and hyperthermia – a lack of oxygen and overheating – in an enclosed space.

Eamonn Harrison, 23, of Mayobridge, Co Down, Northern Ireland, is alleged to have driven the lorry trailer to the Belgian port of Zeebrugge before it sailed to Purfleet in England.

He is charged with 39 counts of manslaughter and one count of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration along with Gheorghe Nica, 43, of Langdon Hills, Basildon, Essex.

Valentin Calota, 37, of Birmingham, and Christopher Kennedy, 24, of Co Armagh, Northern Ireland, are charged with being part of the people-smuggling conspiracy.

The defendants have denied the charges against them.

The trial at the Old Bailey is being heard before Mr Justice Sweeney.

On Monday, a jury panel was selected and sent away until Wednesday when prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones QC is expected to open the case.

Mr Justice Sweeney told the 22 potential jurors: “It is the jury who are the judges of fact in the trial in the Crown Court.

“Jurors reach their decisions based solely on the evidence that they hear in court and what they make of it, so it’s extremely important from this moment onwards, even though you know precious little about the case, that you do not talk with anybody about it at all.”

The senior judge said it was his first time as a “Covid-related judge” presiding over a trial under social distancing guidelines.

The trial is expected to go on for up to six weeks.