UK - 39 bodies found in lorry container, Essex, 23 Oct 2019 #2

[CSIDreamer]

Thanks for keeping us updated!

 

[Silverlink]

• EJ switches his attention to Essex. Ronan Hughes has stayed in the Ibis Hotel in Thurrock, very near Purlfeet and is spending a second night there. During the night Nica's Mercedes was entered into the hotel's parking system.
• During the night Nica calls Calota. This is the first time, says, EJ that we have seen Calota in the evidence. EJ says this is Calota's moment in the limelight for he drove to meet that lorry in the area of Collingwood farm.
  
• Meanwhile Hughes attempted to contact Kennedy and was sent to voicemail. Soon after there was a text from Hughes to Kennedy. Less than a minute after that Kennedy called Hughes.
  EJ says there is something particular about their contact that night. Earlier in the day on the 17th Oct Kennedy bought himself a new phone. His old phone was a contract phone purchased in his name and registered to his home address. The new phone was a pay-as-you-go (1/2)
• The network has no idea he's using that phone says EJ. This "cheapo Nokia" bought that afternoon by Kennedy is what we call a "burner" or a "dirty phone". It is not registered to him or anyone, it is disposable.
  
• Turning to Hughes EJ says in his case two of the numbers are burners. It is the prosecution case that Hughes used his dirty phones for dirty business, these are the phones he uses for people smuggling. He uses them at different times. Using and then disposing.
• EJ says there is a call in to one of the burner phones at 2230 on the 14th Oct. EJ adds that's not much more than an hour before the migrants were discovered in the trailer. That was the last time Hughes ever used that phone. Something went wrong and he chucked his phone away.
  
• The phone does feature again when Robinson tried to ring it four times but Hughes has chucked it away and so those calls are not answered. All 4 diverted to voicemail.
• Hughes and Robinson were in touch at that time but on different phone numbers - on their "clean phones", the phones registered to them at their homes.
  
• EJ continues, having got rid of one of his burner phones Hughes needed a new burner. On the evening of the 16th Oct Hughes bought a new £10 phone at Lakeside. The first number he called with it was Robinson, but not his clean phone, his burner phone. Burner to burner.
• EJ adds, more importantly for this trial is when Kennedy in touch with Hughes on the night of 17th Oct, the night before Kennedy was going to go to Purfleet to collect Hughes's trailer-load of illegal migrants, they all use their burner phones. Dirty phones for dirty business.
• EJ turns back to the sequence of events. Nica is in touch with Calota once the trailer is coming across from Purfleet. Nica calls Calota, speaking for 26 seconds. EJ says Calota was making "quite a trip" to meet up with Nica and the others.
  
• Calota's cell site data shows he was in Coventry, then Milton Keynes before reaching Essex at 0517. Driving all the way from the West Midlands.
• EJ says you'll notice he made the trip in his Ford KA, not entirely suitable for picking up migrants.
• Just as on the 11th Oct, it was Kennedy who arrived at Purfleet Port at 0620 to collect the trailer. At almost exactly the same time Hughes set off from his hotel driving a silver VW Passat. He'd been in touch with Kennedy using their burners shortly before he left.
• The jury are now being shown a still of the tractor unit Kennedy was driving at the port of Purfleet at 0616 on the 18th. The ship arrived at 0600 that morning.
• The temperature inside the trailer was 25.2 degrees when the ship arrived at Purfleet that morning. Kennedy collected the trailer and left the port at 0724. Whilst he was inside the port waiting to pick up the trailer, he spoke with Hughes.
• Court breaks for 10 minutes
  

 

[Silverlink]

Here's some of today's news articles on the case:

Migrants found dead in lorry 'tried to get into UK two weeks earlier'

People smuggler branded Audi used to import immigrants a 'funeral car', court hears | Daily Mail Online

Essex lorry deaths: Some victims of tragedy foiled in previous smuggling attempt, court hears

 

[Silverlink]

• Returning from the break EJ continues, we move to Orsett Golf Club. The CCTV shows us the vehicles convening by Collingwood farm.
  
• The CCTV shows a white van being driven by Mr Calota. He is no longer in his small car but in a large panel van. EJ says this is slightly different from the 11th because the persons coming to collect are here ahead of time, waiting for the lorry.
  
• Once the lorry appears they move off and travel the short distance to Collingwood Farm. The driver can be seen to be getting out of the van and then back in. The next clip shows Nica driving a Mercedes.
• Next Ronan Hughes driving a silver VW Passat passes by the CCTV. And then Kennedy drives past in the lorry. And the vehicles move off in the direction of the lorry.
• That morning, one of the witnesses who saw what happened on the 11th saw the lorry again on the 18th but on this occasion she didn't see anyone get out the back. But she noticed that it had stopped in the same position as it had been the previous week.
  
• Very quickly after, the vehicles returned from the way they came. Cell site data for each of them locate them around the same area surrounding the golf club.
• On the 18th Nica and Calota drive west towards Grays, crossing over the river, heading at 0815 towards South East London. The same postcode that was used on the 11th, at 0911- 0948 each of Calota, Nica and Draghici are cell siting around the same area
  
• Hughes and Kennedy were not involved in that part of the business. Kennedy and Hughes, on the remainder of the 18th, went to a petrol station together. There was frequent telephone contact between them.
• Kennedy left the lorry at the services and together with Hughes drove to Hughes's hotel. Leaving the hotel at 0836. They return to the services, picking up the lorry. By 0851 Kennedy has taken it across the Dartford crossing and is in Kent.
• Kennedy then drove the trailer to Lympne Industrial Estate near the Kent Coast. EJ turns the jury's attention to the temperature of the lorry, it has started to fall again. By 1012 that morning, by Lympne, the temperature is 2.4 degrees C.
  
• Hughes joined Kennedy at the Lympne Industrial Estate, arriving at 1048. In addition to the human cargo Kennedy's trailer contained pallets of biscuits - macaroons and Bakewell tarts to be precise.
  
• At 1246 Kennedy set off for Lenham where the deliveries were intended. When Kennedy arrived, his load was inspected and the inspector noticed under the top layer of macaroons the boxes were crushed and had footprints and dirt on them. Indicating there had been human activity.
  
• The seal on the trailer rear doors was intake. And yet someone had been in there without breaking the seal and had "messed around" with the biscuits, says EJ. The jury are now being shown images of the broken boxes and the seal.
• The explanation for the seal being unbroken is that the right hand rear door of the trailer had been tampered with to allow for the doors to be opened and closed without having to break the seal, says EJ.
  
• This simple alteration completely undermined the integrity of the trailer's contents, says Emlyn Jones. Exactly what the seal is supposed to prevent.
  
• The jury are now looking at still of the seal, demonstrating how the seal works and how it should be looped around the handle and the door - thereby stopping the handle being pulled away from the door.
  
• The inspector refused to accept the biscuits. She spoke to the supplier and discovered the the lorry had been restacked, re-organised. All done without the seal being broken.
  
• The reason for Hughes and Kennedy not taking it straight there was it was Kennedy with Hughes who tried to disguise the presence in the back of the lorry of the migrants they had that night successfully transferred to the UK.
• The inspector asked Kennedy what he knew about this. Kennedy said he had only just picked this trailer up from Maidstone, to cover his and Hughes tracks, says EJ.
• As soon as the load had been rejected, Kennedy phones Hughes, who has got back to Thurrock. The phones in use were their burner phones, because "this is still dirty business" says EJ.
• Court concludes for the day - returning tomorrow at 1030.
  
  

 

[CaptainNancy]

So, a new name has appeared, Caolan Gormley. According to Companies House, Caolan Darren Gormley is the director of CDG Transport Ltd, based in Caledon in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.

CDG TRANSPORT LTD - Overview (free company information from Companies House)

Another 23 year old driver with a one-person company formed for tax purposes, and accounts not filed.

Great detailed reporting from the Sky reporter.

The Evening Standard has court drawings of the defendants :
Migrants found dead in lorry 'tried to get into UK two weeks earlier'

I just don't know how they thought they wouldn't be caught. Repeat visits to the Farm were they were observed more than once. Driving trailers with GPS trackers. The clearly recorded evidence of the fridge temperatures. Messing about thinking they were being clever with burner phones and leaving a clear trail on GPS, phone masts, ANPR etc.

 

[Silverlink]

Another 23 year old driver with a one-person company formed for tax purposes, and accounts not filed.

Great detailed reporting from the Sky reporter.

The Evening Standard has court drawings of the defendants :
Migrants found dead in lorry 'tried to get into UK two weeks earlier'

Here is Caolan Gormley's Facebook, he was recruiting for an office administrator for his haulage business in May. Like Ronan Hughes did when he had Facebook, he uses a gaelic version of his surname, 'O Goirmleadhaigh'.
Facebook

Also found Christopher Kennedy, he's on Gormley's friends list and Milne's reporting today reveals that he worked for Gormley.
Christopher Kennedy

He was selling a 2006 Scania R580 on Bulgarian plates in one of the Facebook groups in January last year.
Facebook Groups

That truck is B8702BX, also photographed here:
B870 2BX

I just don't know how they thought they wouldn't be caught. Repeat visits to the Farm were they were observed more than once. Driving trailers with GPS trackers. The clearly recorded evidence of the fridge temperatures. Messing about thinking they were being clever with burner phones and leaving a clear trail on GPS, phone masts, ANPR etc.

None of these people seem particularly bright to me. It seems that they were copying a method they learned from others and as has been revealed this week, made so many sloppy errors.

 

[Silverlink]

Here is Milne's reporting from today's proceedings. Some absolutely harrowing details of what happened in the last moments of the 39.

https://twitter.com/JEMilneSky/status/1314492594907500545

 

[CSIDreamer]

38.5 C = 101.3 F

https://twitter.com/JEMilneSky/status/1314514136500506624?s=20

I find myself converting C to F. So for anyone who needs it, there ya go.

 

[PS136]

Here is Caolan Gormley's Facebook, he was recruiting for an office administrator for his haulage business in May. Like Ronan Hughes did when he had Facebook, he uses a gaelic version of his surname, 'O Goirmleadhaigh'.
Facebook



Also found Christopher Kennedy, he's on Gormley's friends list and Milne's reporting today reveals that he worked for Gormley.
Christopher Kennedy

He was selling a 2006 Scania R580 on Bulgarian plates in one of the Facebook groups in January last year.
Facebook Groups

That truck is B8702BX, also photographed here:
B870 2BX



None of these people seem particularly bright to me. It seems that they were copying a method they learned from others and as has been revealed this week, made so many sloppy errors.

They are not bright! They were cocky and greedy. Posting photos of their new purchases on social media.
Caolan Gormley looks to be right in the thick of it with RH, has he any charges? Weird that his employee CK does yet he doesn’t?

 

[Silverlink]

Truly heartbreaking stuff. Everyone responsible for this deserves decades in jail.

Essex lorry deaths: Trial hears last words of Vietnamese man who died with 38 other migrants in container

Jurors heard how the 25-year-old recorded a message for his family that said: "It's Tuan. I am sorry. I cannot take care of you. I am sorry. I am sorry. I cannot breathe. I want to come back to my family. Have a good life."

Less than half an hour later - just after 8pm - in a mobile phone video, a voice says: "I can't breathe....I can't breathe. I'm sorry. I have to go now."

A minute afterwards, in a second video file on the phone, the same voice repeats he is sorry, and after a long pause adds: "It's all my fault."

Prosecuting, Bill Emlyn Jones said another voice was heard in the background of one of the voice recordings, saying: "He's dead."

"Why did this trip go so terribly wrong when on other occasions the migrants were safely unloaded and driven away?" he asked.

"This time the criminals just got too greedy, at £10,000 a head.

"This time they simply had too many people on board, too many people loaded into a single lorry trailer. We suggest that they were under pressure to double up.

"Were they doing two loads in one? Is that what has caused these deaths?"

 

[Silverlink]

They are not bright! They were cocky and greedy. Posting photos of their new purchases on social media.
Caolan Gormley looks to be right in the thick of it with RH, has he any charges? Weird that his employee CK does yet he doesn’t?

I haven't seen any charges against Gormley in the public domain. Considering he was trying to hire staff in May, it doesn't look like it. Very odd.

There's another man who has been mentioned during proceedings, Marius Draghici, who was involved in collecting the migrants but there aren't any charges against him in the public domain either.

 

[PS136]

I haven't seen any charges against Gormley in the public domain. Considering he was trying to hire staff in May, it doesn't look like it. Very odd.

There's another man who has been mentioned during proceedings, Marius Draghici, who was involved in collecting the migrants but there aren't any charges against him in the public domain either.

That is very odd, 2 men, both definitely implicated by Evidence and both not charged
CK was employed by Gormley, his workload and orders given by Gormley. Why let him walk away? He’s as banged to rights as the others

 

[CSIDreamer]

That is very odd, 2 men, both definitely implicated by Evidence and both not charged
CK was employed by Gormley, his workload and orders given by Gormley. Why let him walk away? He’s as banged to rights as the others

Can you turn state's witness over there?

 

[PS136]

Can you turn state's witness over there?

MR allegedly struck some kind of deal. Unsure if it was to do with his sentencing, or if it was to do with his assets? As far as sentencing although he pled guilty, the judge will take that into consideration, it is not a guarantee that the judge will be lenient with him. The judge could Thank him for his ‘alleged’ cooperation, and wallop him with a life sentence with possibility of parole after 25yrs. It’s fair to assume that RH will get a equally harsh sentence. I do not think the court will give them a tap on the wrists. I do think they will be made an example of. Might be wrong but I can’t see him getting a 15yr tariff for 39 manslaughter counts.

 

[CaptainNancy]

I wonder who decided to put so many people in the trailer?

It is possible, perhaps, that even though the various drivers knew that they were smuggling migrants, that they did not know how many and therefore how extra dangerous on this trip. EH is reported to have been there when the lorry was loaded, but walked away for 9 minutes.

However, they seem to be paid per migrant, and there was plenty of phone conferring, and various groupings meeting in RH’s hotel room suggests that they all knew what was going on.

The trials of the people arrested in France and The Netherlands (or was it Belgium) could shed a lot of light too. They were presumably the ones managing the migrants up until they got in the lorry.

 

[elliefant]

Can you turn state's witness over there?

I wondered about something like that. But they have so much other strong evidence that I can’t see them offering Gormley immunity from prosecution for his testimony, not with 39 deaths involved. It does seem odd to me that he has not been charged.

 

[PS136]

I wondered about something like that. But they have so much other strong evidence that I can’t see them offering Gormley immunity from prosecution for his testimony, not with 39 deaths involved. It does seem odd to me that he has not been charged.

I wonder who decided to put so many people in the trailer?

It is possible, perhaps, that even though the various drivers knew that they were smuggling migrants, that they did not know how many and therefore how extra dangerous on this trip. EH is reported to have been there when the lorry was loaded, but walked away for 9 minutes.

However, they seem to be paid per migrant, and there was plenty of phone conferring, and various groupings meeting in RH’s hotel room suggests that they all knew what was going on.

The trials of the people arrested in France and The Netherlands (or was it Belgium) could shed a lot of light too. They were presumably the ones managing the migrants up until they got in the lorry.

I could never understand why EH went ‘Not guilty’ more so after the evidence we have heard so far. Whilst MR had home search and cash was found, his home purchase etc, it is clear he profited handsomely. Yet on the other side if the coin we have EH. Something is not right about this
Again we have CK he too pled ‘Not guilty’ and again we heard the evidence against him. Whilst Gormley seams to have the flash trucks etc, his involvement puts him upto his neck in it.

Maybe they individually recruited EH & CK to do the ‘donkey work’, yet turn up from time to time with RH in area of Thurrock to pick up their share of profits.With MR & CG they took a far larger cut, each paying EH & CK far smaller amounts, probably bit more than a wage.

Maybe it’s the money involved and the profiteering suggestion that has niggled EH & CK? They didn’t actually know what the price per migrant that MR, CG were being paid? EH had been doing these runs for over 12 months, look at what material wealth MR accumulated during that time. Do we know if EH and CK had homes etc?

 

[Silverlink]

Gheorghe Nica's lawyer, Aftab Jafferjee QC, is claiming that he was a "gopher" rather than an "organiser" and that the real ringleaders were two men - Marius Draghici and another man - who had so far “evaded apprehension”.

Alisdair Williamson QC, said his client, Harrison, was not guilty of manslaughter. Mr Williamson said he would ask the jury to pay particular attention to who was in the cab of the lorry with Harrison and he asked them to consider: “What role did this person play?”

People Smuggler Accused of Manslaughter of 39 Vietnamese Migrants Claims He Was Just a 'Gopher'

 

[CaptainNancy]

I wonder then, how much assistance Nica has given towards the apprehension of the mysterious Draghici and the unnamed man.

And who was in the cab with Harrison? Another mysterious person so far not named.

In any case whoever that person was and whatever his role, if EH knew there were people in the back he can be found guilty of manslaughter whatever anyone else was doing or not doing. 'Joint Enterprise'. Unless he was forced at gunpoint, or something.

These drivers who drive refrigerated trailers are trained to manage the temperature - they are responsible for ensuring that the temperature inside the trailer remains as prescribed, they make decisions as to whether to leave the fridge motor running all night, or on 'stop start' etc and checking the temperature is part of their routine. EH would have been easily aware of the temperature in the trailer when he delivered it, and that it wasn't heated up by biscuits, or even smuggled cigarettes, as CK claims to have thought he was carrying. Tho' I suppose they could claim that they didn't look at the temperature as biscuits and smuggled cigarettes presumably travel at ambient temperatures.

 

[CaptainNancy]

Trial paused until Wednesday due to COVID fears
Essex lorry deaths trial hears "elusive and sinister" suspect still at large

And Nica's lawyer is blaming everyone else. I daresay the judge or maybe the prosecution might spell out Common Purpose and Joint Enterprise to the jury. Not that I am a legal expert or even a legal 'know a bit'.