'Shocked' eyewitness called police three times about migrants jumping out of a lorry in Essex a fortnight before 39 Vietnamese victims suffocated to death, court hears
Shocked eyewitnesses made repeated calls to police over migrants jumping out of a lorry in Essex just two weeks before 39 Vietnamese victims suffocated to death, a court has heard.
Marie Andrews and her partner Stewart Cox allegedly spotted a migrant drop outside their mobile home in Orsett, Essex, early on October 11 last year.
Prosecutors claim it was one of two successful people-smuggling runs before 39 Vietnamese nationals suffocated in a trailer en route from Zeebrugge to Purfleet on October 23 last year.
On the day the bodies were found, Ms Andrews said she called police to say she 'recognised,' the lorry as the same one she had seen outside her home
Marie Andrews told a trial she made repeated calls to police after watching migrants leave a lorry outside her mobile home in Orsett, Essex, less than two weeks before 39 Vietnamese migrants were found dead in Grays last year
Ms Andrews said she called police a fourth time after she saw news of the grim discovery in Grays. She told a court: 'I immediately recognised this cab and trailer on the news as certainly being the same one that I had seen on both October 11 and October 18 2019'
Lorry driver Eamonn Harrison, 23, of County Down, is charged with manslaughter
Giving evidence at the Old Bailey on Monday, Ms Andrews told how she dialled 999 on October 11, after landscaper Mr Cox left for work and found a lorry and four cars in their lane.
She told the operator that 'a load of immigrants just got out of a lorry into Mercs'.
Ms Andrews told jurors there were about 15 migrants.
She said: 'I saw some legs come out. It was a shock, like anybody would be shocked to see this, particularly down a lane people would not know.
'I was on the phone, I'm standing there looking out as I'm speaking on the phone.
'I didn't take my eyes off the lorry while I was on the call.'
Ms Andrews went on to call the non-emergency number 101 twice, the court heard.
In the calls, she linked one of the Mercedes cars she had seen to an earlier incident on October 4.
Alleged key organiser Gheorghe Nica, 43, of Basildon, Essex, and lorry driver Eamonn Harrison, 23, deny the manslaughters of 39 Vietnamese people, aged between 15 and 44
On that occasion, she told police that 'the same guy who is obviously running this was having an argument and having some guy by the throat'.
The witness also told jurors that on October 18, she saw a red lorry in the lane, but did not see any migrants.
Under cross-examination, Ms Andrews alleged there was 'dodgy stuff' going on in the area.
But she added that the sighting on October 11 was the first time she had been aware of migrant issues.
In her statement read to court, Ms Andrews described ringing 101 again after seeing the news of the 39 migrant deaths on social media.
Pham Thi Tra My, pictured left and right, was one of the victims of the tragedy in Essex last year
She said: 'I immediately recognised this cab and trailer on the news as certainly being the same one that I had seen on both October 11 and October 18 2019.'
As a result of that call, Ms Andrews became a witness in the trial.
Earlier today, jurors were played footage of the sequence of events in a botched people-smuggling journey allegedly carried out by the defendants 10 days before the migrants died.
CCTV mapping a tortuous route - similar to the one taken during the fatal trip - showed Eamonn Harrison's lorry 'trundling' away from Zeebrugge after picking up a trailer.
He would later use the container to pick up 20 Vietnamese nationals from Chemin-Noord Strate in France before meeting Kennedy who drove them to the French border, it was said.
Meanwhile, Maurice Robinson, 26, from County Armagh, and Irish haulier boss Ronan Hughes, 40, liaised with each other on the other side of the channel.
A message sent from Robinson to his employer simply read: 'Outside,' jurors were told.
Nguyen Dinh Luong, pictured left, and Nguyen Huy Hung, pictured right, were among the victims
Hours earlier during the alleged operation on 13 October, Nica was caught topping up his pay-as-you go 'dirty burner' phone at a corner shop in Tilbury, Essex, the court heard.
'While trundled off into Belgium we can see we're near the end of the 13 now.
'Almost exactly as Harrison is leaving Zeebrugge, Robinson and Hughes are in touch with each other. From Robinson's phone, that message just said: 'Outside," prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones said.
Kennedy took the migrants to Calais where he attempted to smuggle them through the Eurotunnel to Dover, jurors have heard.
He was stopped by border officials who found the non-EU citizens in the back of his truck and took them away but allowed him to continue on his journey, it was said.
Alleged key organiser Gheorghe Nica, 43, of Basildon, Essex, and lorry driver Eamonn Harrison, 23, deny the manslaughters of 39 Vietnamese people, aged between 15 and 44.
Harrison, of Mayobridge, Co Down, Northern Ireland, Christopher Kennedy, 24, of Co Armagh, Northern Ireland, and Valentin Calota, 37, of Birmingham, deny being part of a people-smuggling conspiracy, which Nica has admitted.
Jurors have heard that four others have admitted a role in the people-smuggling ring.
The trial continues tomorrow.
The 39 Vietnamese victims of the tragedy
Dinh Dinh Binh, a 15-year-old boy from Hai Phong
Nguyen Minh Quang, a 20-year-old man from Nghe An
Nguyen Huy Phong, 35-year-old man from Ha Tin
Le Van Ha, a 30-year-old man from Nghe An
Nguyen Van Hiep, a 24-year-old man from Nghe An
Bui Phan Thang, a 37-year-old man from Ha Tinh
Nguyen Van Hung, a 33-year-old man from Nghe An
Nguyen Huy Hung, a 15-year-old boy from Ha Tin
Nguyen Tien Dung, a 33-year-old man from Quang Binh
Pham Thi Tra My, a 26-year-old woman from Ha Tinh
Tran Khanh Tho, an 18-year-old man from Ha Tinh
Nguyen Van Nhan, a 33-year-old man from Ha Tinh 13
Vo Ngoc Nam, a 28-year-old man from Nghe An
Vo Van Linh, a 25-year-old man from Ha Tinh
Nguyen Ba Vu Hung, a 34-year-old man from Thua Tien Hue
Vo Nhan Du, a 19-year-old man from Ha Tinh
Tran Hai Loc, a 35-year-old man from Nghe An
Tran Manh Hung, a 37-year-old man from Ha Tinh
Nguyen Thi Van, a 35-year-old woman from Nghe An
Bui Thi Nhung, a 19-year-old woman from Nghe An
Hoang Van Tiep, an 18-year-old man from Nghe An
Tran Thi Ngoc, a 19-year-old woman from Nghe An
Phan Thi Thanh, a 41-year-old woman from Hai Phong 24
Tran Thi Tho, a 21-year-old woman from Nghe An
Duong Minh Tuan, a 27-year-old man from Quang Binh
Pham Thi Ngoc Oanh, a 28-year-old woman from Nghe An
Tran Thi Mai Nhung, an 18-year-old woman from Nghe An
Le Trong Thanh a 44-year-old man from Dien Chau
Nguyen Ngoc Ha, a 32-year-old man from Quang Binh
Hoang Van Hoi, a 24-year-old man from Nghe An
Tran Ngoc Hieu, a 17-year-old boy from Hai Duong
Cao Tien Dung, a 37-year-old man from Nghe An
Dinh Dinh Thai Quyen, an 18-year-old man from Hai Phong
Dong Huu Tuyen, a 22-year-old man from Nghe An
Nguyen Dinh Luong, a 20-year-old man from Ha Tinh
Cao Huy Thanh, a 37-year-old man from Nghe An
Nguyen Trong Thai, a 26-year-old man from Nghe An
Nguyen Tho Tuan, a 25-year-old man from Nghe An
Nguyen Dinh Tu, a 26-year-old man from Nghe An