HAULIER MUST COMPENSATE FAMILIES OF VIETNAMESE WHO DIED IN CONTAINER

A 43-year-old haulier with addresses in Monaghan and Armagh was ordered at the Old Bailey in London last week to pay more than £180,000 in compensation to the families of 39 men, women and children from Vietnam who were found dead in the sealed refrigeration container of a lorry on October 23 2019 while being smuggled into the UK. Ronan Hughes, with addresses in Armagh and Leitrim, Silverstream, Tyholland, Co Monaghan had pleaded guilty last year to 39 counts of manslaughter and conspiring to bring people into the United Kingdom illegally, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The court was told that Mr Hughes had played a leading role in a long-running people-smuggling operation. Three other men were jailed for between 27 years and 13 years and four months for manslaughter and plotting to people-smuggle arising from the incident. At the latest Old Bailey hearing, Judge Mark Lucraft KC ordered the confiscation of Mr Hughes’s available assets, including cash, bank accounts, the value of his lorries, including the one in which the victims died, and his share of a property in the Republic of Ireland. Judge Lucraft ordered that the confiscated sum of £182,078.90 be paid in compensation to the bereaved families of the victims. He said the penalty for defaulting on the order was two years in prison. The 39 bodies were found in a lorry trailer after it was transported by ferry from Zeebrugge to Purfleet in Essex.