TWO more people have been arrested after 39 Chinese migrants were discovered dead in the back of a lorry in Essex.
Haulage boss Thomas Maher and wife Joanna, both 38, were held in Warrington, Cheshire, today on suspicion of conspiracy to traffic people and 39 counts of manslaughter.
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Police in Essex are continuing to quiz lorry driver (Maurice ‘Mo’ Robinson) , 25, on suspicion of murder after he picked up the trailer from Purfleet.
Robinson, who has been a HGV driver for more than five years, doesn’t own the lorry.
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Joanna Maher was named as the owner of the Scania truck, which was registered in the Bulgarian port of Varna in 2018.
But the couple said yesterday they sold the cab a year ago to a company in Ireland after owning it for around 13 Months.
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Speaking from outside his house in Warrington, Thomas Maher said last night: “It’s absolutely disgusting what has happened.
“We owned the cab and sold it on October 3 last year to a company in Southern Ireland.
“I’ve made contact with the police and made them aware that I was the previous owner.
“Seeing the cab on TV wasn’t nice and obviously we are not a part of that.
“We still have trucks, and immigrants have always been a problem in Dover and Calais.”
GRIM DISCOVERY
The grisly discovery is one of Britain’s biggest-ever mass murder probesafter the bodies were found on an industrial estate in Grays on Wednesday.
All the 39 victims – including a teenager – are from China . Police said eight of the victims were women and the remaining 31 men .
Cops have described one of the women as a “young adult” but no other indication of the age of the victims has been released.
Bodies are now being moved by private ambulance with a police escort from Tilbury Docks to Broomfield Hospital so post-mortem examinations can be carried out.
‘DEAD FOR SOME TIME’
A pal said: “When he opened the container up and saw all the dead bodies, he was absolutely horrified – as anyone would be – and called the ambulance service who in turn alerted the police.
“I heard the container was refrigerated – the temperature was – 25 degrees and the bodies were frozen and had been dead for some time. “
The horror has chilling echoes of 2000, when 58 Chinese stowaways died in a lorry traveling by ferry from Belgium to Britain.
In both tragedies, the victims had come from Zeebrugge in to Purfleet port in Essex.
It has been revealed the GPS tracker on the trailer was switched on at 3. 06 pm on October 15 after traveling from Dublin to Monaghan, near the border with Northern Ireland.
It then stopped at Warwickshire and Kent before crossing theChannelto Belgium, and making its way on to migrant hotspots Calais and Dunkirk.
FATEFUL JOURNEY
From here, it went back to the UK via Belgium and then repeated the journey before the victims made the perilous 173 – mile journey in the refrigerated container to Purfleet.
Robinson meanwhile was in the lorry’s cab, which traveled from Holyhead on Saturday, and picked up the container at 12. 30 am.
Both lorry and trailer then left the port at 1. 05 am. Less than 35 minutes later ambulance and police made the grim discovery of the 39 bodies in the back.
Global Trailer Rentals Ltd (GTR) have confirmed to RTE News they own the container and that they leased it on October 15 from their yard in Co Monaghan for £ 238 . 22 a week.
‘NO CHANCE OF SURVIVAL’
Sources close to Irish police said the lorry’s refrigeration unit – which could have plunged temperatures as low as – 25 C – was turned on, leaving those inside with “no chance of survival”.
Even if the trailer was not chilled the victims may have suffered agonising deaths as oxygen slowly ran out.
The Mayor of Zeebrugge, Dirk De Fauw, insist the migrants were dead before they arrived at Zeebrugge, or they would have been detected by heat cameras.
He added: “If you end up in such a box with 39 people, you’re going to die. “
Cops are investigating whether they were passed between different gangs at borders in Central Asia and Europe before attempting the Channel crossing.
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Detectives from the National Crime Agencyare now investigating whether an Irish people smuggling gang with links to Bulgaria was behind the horror.
There are also fearsthe ruthless Chinese “Snakehead” gangs could have masterminded the smuggling plot.
Anyone concerned about relatives following the incident can call a Casualty Bureau on 0800 056 0944 or 0207 (00) if ringing from outside the UK.
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