A 25-year-old man has been charged with the manslaughter of 39 people who were found dead inside a lorry.
Police were called by the ambulance service to Waterglade Industrial Park in Grays Thurrock during the early hours of Wednesday morning. Officers found 39 dead bodies in the back of a lorry.
Today Maurice Robinson, of Laurel Drive, Craigavon, Northern Ireland, has been charged with 39 counts of manslaughter. Robinson has also been charged with conspiracy to traffic people, conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and money laundering.
He will appear before Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on Monday morning, Essex police said.
Three other people have been arrested in connection with this investigation. A 38 year-old man and a 38 year-old woman from Warrington and a 48 year-old man from Northern Ireland, who were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to traffic people and manslaughter remain in custody.
Today distressing details emerged of messages sent by a young woman believed to have been amongst 39 migrants who died in the tragedy.
Pham Thi Tra is reported to have sent a harrowing text to her mum. "I am really, really sorry, Mum and Dad, my trip to a foreign land has failed," she wrote.
