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[–]Nemacolin[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Dying Vietnamese migrants who were trapped inside a refridgerated lorry trailer tried to force their way out with a metal pole before they were found half naked having suffocated to death, a court has heard.

A trial is underway after 39 people were found dead in the back of the lorry trailer in Essex last year, in a scene so harrowing the man who smuggled them into Britain couldn't bear to look, a jury heard.

Eamonn Harrison, 23, and Gheorghe Nica, 43, are accused of killing the men, women and children found dead in the trailer on October 23 last year.

Valentin Calota, 37, and Christopher Kennedy, 24, are also alleged to have assisted in the global smuggling ring, driving 'desperate' economic migrants into the UK.

The victims - including eight women and ten teenagers, the youngest of whom were two boys aged 15 - had paid up to £10,000 each for the journey, the court was told.