Man ordered to pay £180000 to families for Essex lorry deaths

• Ronan Hughes, 43, of Armagh, Northern Ireland, sentenced to 20 years in prison.
• 39 Vietnamese migrants found dead in a container on moving truck in Oct 2019.
• Failure to comply with the order will result in a two-year prison sentence.

39 Vietnamese migrants were found dead in a container on a moving truck, and a man found guilty of their deaths was sentenced to pay their families more than £180000.

In October 2019, the men, women, and children perished while travelling from Zeebrugge to Purfleet, Essex.

After admitting manslaughter, Ronan Hughes, 43, of Armagh, Northern Ireland, received a 20-year sentence.

Judge Mark Lucraft KC of the Old Bailey declared that failure to comply with the order will result in a two-year prison sentence.

The worth of lorries, including the one in which the victims died, as well as Hughes’s portion of an Irish property were among the assets Hughes had accessible, according to testimony given in court.

The confiscated amount of £182,078.90 was to be handed as compensation “to the relatives of those slain in this awful catastrophe,” the judge ruled.

During an earlier hearing at the same London court, Hughes was referred to as “the ringleader of a people smuggling ring.”

The bodies of the Vietnamese nationals were found not long after the lorry landed in the UK via boat from Zeebrugge, Belgium, at an industrial area in Grays, Essex.

Two of the ten dead youths, both 15 years old, were teens.

Their medical causes of death were asphyxia and heat, an inquest heard, as temperatures increased and oxygen levels decreased in the sealed lorry container’s back.

Previously, three additional individuals who committed manslaughter and planned to transport persons were sentenced to between 27 and 13 years and four months in prison.

Due to their participation in the scheme, several gang members have been sent to prison.

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