People smugglers jailed for 78 years over deaths of 39 migrants

The 39 Vietnamese migrants, including two aged just 15, tried to break out of the sealed lorry trailer and sent heartbreaking goodbye messages to family before they ran out of air and were found dead in Grays, Essex

Four people-smugglers have been jailed for 78 years for the killings of 39 Vietnamese migrants who suffocated in an airtight lorry trailer that became a 40C "tomb".

Ringleaders Gheorghe Nica, 43, and Ronan Hughes, 41, and drivers Maurice Robinson, 26, and Eamonn Harrison, 24, were sentenced along with three other gang members on Friday.

Nica was given 27 years, Hughes was handed 20 years in prison, Harrison was sentenced to 18 years, and Robinson was jailed for 13 years and four months - all for 39 counts of manslaughter and a people-smuggling conspiracy.

Three others were jailed for a total of 14 years for lesser offences.

Mr Justice Sweeney told the defendants jailed for manslaughter they would serve two-thirds of the term in custody, instead of the usual half.

It comes 15 months after the bodies of 28 men, eight women and three children were found "closely packed" inside the sealed HGV container as steam poured from its doors in Grays, Essex.

During their harrowing final moments, some of the trapped migrants used a pole try to break out while others used their phones to send heartbreaking goodbye messages to their families as they ran out of air before reaching Britain.

A husband and wife, survived by two children aged six and four, were found dead holding hands and huddled together.

In his sentencing remarks at the Old Bailey in London, Mr Justice Sweeney said: “I have no doubt that, as asserted by the prosecution, the conspiracy was a sophisticated, long running and profitable one to smuggle mainly Vietnamese migrants across the channel.”

Eamonn Harrison was sentenced to 18 years

Maurice Robinson was jailed for 13 years and four months

Ronan Hughes was given a 20 year term

Gheroghe Nica was slapped with a 27 year sentence

Credit: Read more from mirror.co.uk