Maurice Robinson, the 25-year-old driver of the lorry. (Source: New York Post)

Robinson, 25, from Northern Ireland, pleaded guilty to 39 counts of manslaughters at Central London Criminal Court.

On November 25, 2019, Robinson pleaded guilty to assisting unlawful immigration and acquiring criminal property. However, he did not enter a plea to 41 other charges, including 39 counts of manslaughter.

Another driver from North Ireland, Eamonn Harrison, 23, drove the container, which carried the victims, to the port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, where it was put on a ferry to England and picked up at the other end by Maurice Robinson on early morning of October 23./.VNA

UK police charge another over Essex lorry deaths

British police on March 16 charged another man as part of their investigation into the deaths of 39 Vietnamese people found dead inside a refrigeration trailer in Essex, northeast of London, last October.

Essex truck victims die of lack of oxygen, overheating: British police

Thirty-nine Vietnamese people found dead inside a refrigerated trailer in Essex, north-east of London, last October, died of hypoxia (oxygen deprivation) and hyperthermia (overheating) in an enclosed space, British police said on February 11.