Final member of people-smuggling gang linked to 39 migrant deaths convicted

Haulage boss Caolan Gormley, from Co Tyrone, plotted to bring migrants into the UK from mainland Europe.

Caolan Gormley is on trial at the Old Bailey, London, accused of being involved in a people-smuggling ring linked to the deaths of 39 migrants (Handout/Essex Police)

The final member of a people-smuggling gang linked to the deaths of 39 men, women and children in Essex has been convicted.

Haulage boss Caolan Gormley, 26, from Co Tyrone, plotted to bring migrants into the UK from mainland Europe three times in October 2019.

One of the trips was scuppered by French border officials, with some migrants from that trip believed to have died days later in a fatal run overnight on October 22-23 2019.

Gormley had denied being involved, claiming he thought he was helping bring alcohol into the UK illegally.

On Monday, a jury deliberated for just over an hour to find Gormley guilty of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.

His conviction brings the total number of people to be convicted over the plot to 11.

Judge Richard Marks adjourned sentencing until Friday.

Previously, prosecutor Ben Holt told jurors the people smugglers exploited the victims’ desperation to get to the UK, charging more than £10,000 a head.

The migrants would be loaded into a container lorry on the continent and transported across the English Channel to be picked up for onward transfer in the UK.

Gormley was recruited by ringleader Ronan Hughes and deployed his driver Christopher Kennedy to help move the human cargo.

He was implicated in three trips, overnight on October 10 to 11, a failed run on October 14 to 15, and October 18 to 19, just days before the tragedy.

On the first trip, residents near Orsett in Essex saw migrants jumping out of the back of a lorry before being whisked away by vehicles to their destinations.

Mr Holt told jurors: “The other trip was thwarted by customs officials in France. Remarkably, the driver on that occasion – Kennedy – was effectively given a slap on the wrists and told to go on his way. The migrants were similarly allowed to go.

“Tragically, some of those migrants would end up in the lorry part of the 39 men, women and children who died during the night (of) October 22 and 23.”

On that occasion, another driver, Maurice Robinson, picked up a container at Purfleet docks and found all 39 Vietnamese people aged between 15 and 44 dead.

He opened the doors after being instructed by Hughes to “give them air quick” but not let the migrants out.

Following the discovery, Robinson called his boss Hughes before dialling 999.

Giving evidence in his trial, Gormley said he was taking a break at a truck stop in Sandbach, Cheshire, on his way to deliver racehorse bedding to Cambridge when he spoke to Hughes.

He said: “He called me the night before and I was returning the call. I remember when he answered he sounded different, panicked, making no sense at all. It was just mumbo jumbo. He was making zero sense.”

At 3.46pm, Gormley got a text from his mother in Co Tyrone asking if the truck in the news belonged to one of Hughes’s brothers.

He replied: “Don’t know and neither do u (sic).”

Gormley told jurors he was trying to stop his mother from “gossiping” because she works in a doctors’ surgery and thought there might be “repercussions”.

He described his “total disbelief this had happened”, adding: “I was just shocked, to be honest.”

Later the same day, Gormley dumped the burner phone he used to communicate with Hughes.

Gormley was asked why he denied “to the bitter end” being the owner of that phone when interviewed by police.

He said: “I lied about it because I didn’t want to confess (to) a crime I had committed in relation to alcohol smuggling.

“I had contacted Ronan Hughes on the phone. At that time the news had come out about what happened with the 39 dead and I didn’t want any affiliation with that.”

Gormley also told jurors he had no reason to question Kennedy’s explanation for being caught with migrants in his lorry on October 14.

He said: “Kennedy said he stopped at the supermarket to buy alcohol and cigarettes on his way to the crossing. At that time he was actually covering his tracks for what had happened.

“He just said they must have got in the trailer while he was in the shop. It’s a very hot spot for migrants in the Calais area. It’s very common. I had no reason not to believe his account.”

A consignment of biscuits from Belgium was ruined during the October 18 people-smuggling run, the court was told.

After the verdict, Detective Chief Inspector Louise Metcalfe, of the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, said: “The people who were part of this international network were ruthless in their financial greed – their behaviour and their actions are reprehensible.

“They have shown no regard for the law and, most importantly, the value of human life.

“We have consistently promised the families of the 39 victims that we would deliver justice in its entirety. We have been committed to hunting down every person we know to have been involved.

“In Essex and with international partners, we have done that. The investigation has broken up a sophisticated international criminal operation and it has seen the conviction of 11 people here in the UK as well as 18 people earlier this month in France.

“Today, as this final guilty verdict is reached, we think of our Vietnamese friends and the families of the victims. But most of all we think of the 39 people who will never leave our hearts here at Essex Police.”