CCTV shows police arriving at scene of lorry deaths in October

Описание: CCTV footage from the moment police officers found 39 bodies in the back of a lorry has been released during the court case hearings.

A police officer described to jurors at The Old Bailey how he found the tightly packed, half-naked bodies of 39 migrants in the back of a lorry trailer.

Pc Jack Emerson was among the first at the scene in Essex after lorry driver Maurice Robinson dialled 999 early on October 23 last year.

Robinson, 26, had picked up the trailer from Purfleet docks after it was transported from Zeebrugge in Belgium, the Old Bailey has heard.

He opened the doors to the trailer minutes after leaving Purfleet but drove around and spoke to haulage boss Ronan Hughes and alleged organiser Gheorghe Nica by phone before alerting emergency services, jurors were told.

When police arrived on the scene at 1.50am, Robinson was "just standing there" and appeared calm, according to Pc Emerson.

The court was shown CCTV of marked police cars arriving in Eastern Avenue, Thurrock, where Robinson's lorry was parked with the rear trailer door open.

Describing the scene, Pc Emerson said: "I could see one of the trailer doors was already open and I could visibly see numerous half-naked bodies in the back of the trailer, lying on the trailer floor motionless.

Earlier in court, it was heard a lorry driver was told to give migrants “air quickly” but not to let them out during a 12-hour journey where they suffocated to death.

Lorry driver Maurice Robinson, received a message from his boss to give the Vietnamese nationals, sealed inside the pitch-black refrigerated unit “air quickly, but don't let them out", jurors were told.

With no signal in the container that had risen to a temperature of 38.5C, one of the victims - a 28-year-old woman - wrote a text message that was never sent, saying: "Maybe going to die in the container, can't breathe any more dear."

Lorry driver Eamonn Harrison and Gheorghe Nica are on trial at the Old Bailey accused of the manslaughter of the 39 migrants who were found dead after the lorry arrived in Purfleet, Essex, in October last year.

The pair are also accused of being part of a people-smuggling conspiracy with another lorry driver, Christopher Kennedy, and Valentin Calota.

Subscribe to The Telegraph on YouTube ► https://bit.ly/3idrdLH

Get the latest headlines: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Telegraph.co.uk and    / telegraphtv   are websites of The Telegraph, the UK's best-selling quality daily newspaper providing news and analysis on UK and world events, business, sport, lifestyle and culture.