Move FM Global News

LONDON, UK – Maurice Robinson, the lorry driver from Craigavon, Co Armagh in Northern Ireland, has pleaded guilty in a London court to conspiring with others to assist illegal immigration between 1 May 2018 and 24 October 2019.

The plea was entered at the Old Bailey on Monday.

Robinson, who is also facing manslaughter charges over the deaths of 39 people from various provinces in Vietnam, was not asked to plead on those.

Wearing a light blue sweater and tan trousers, the 25-year old who goes by the name of ‘Mo,’ appeared via video-link from Belmarsh prison.

The bodies of 39 Vietnamese people, including 8 women and two boys aged 15, were discovered in the back of a refrigerated trailer attached to Robinson’s Scania cab in an industrial park in Essex, in England, on 23 October. It is understood Robinson, when he opened the door to the refrigerated lorry and found that his ‘load’ had all died, fainted.

Robinson was not the owner of the lorry, it was found to have been registered in Bulgaria in 2017 by an Irish company.

He was remanded in custody to appear before the court again on 13 December.