Essex migrant deaths: Mo Robinson charged with 39 counts of manslaughter; another man is arrested in Dublin Port

Essex Police are investigating lines of inquiry to “establish whether there is a wider conspiracy involved” in the deaths of 39 people found in a lorry in Essex.

• Truck driver Mo Robinson from Co Armagh has been charged with 39 counts of manslaughter this afternoon. He will appear tomorrow in court.
• A man in his 20s has been arrested at Dublin Port in connection with the probe into the discovery of 39 bodies (eight women and 31 men) in a lorry in Essex.
• Essex police have not yet confirmed the identities or nationalities of the 39 people whose bodies were found in Essex, England on Wednesday.
• Police initially believed all of the dead were Chinese nationals, but the force said at a press conference "this is now a developing picture" amid reports several may be Vietnamese.
• A number of people who say their relatives are among the dead say the truck was one of a convoy of three, carrying 100 migrants in total. They say two of the vehicles are thought to have completed their journeys, but the third - carrying the 39 victims - was delayed at an unknown location. These claims have not been independently verified.
• Three people with Irish connections are being questioned - a 48-year-old man from Northern Ireland who was detained at Stansted Airport yesterday; a couple - named locally as haulage boss Thomas Maher and his wife Joanna, both 38 - arrested in Warrington, England.
• It is not yet known when the victims entered the trailer, where temperatures can be as low as minus 25C if the fridge is activated, or the exact route it travelled.
• Belgian officials said the trailer arrived at Zeebrugge at 2.49pm on Tuesday and left the port the same day en route to the port of Purfleet, Essex.
• The trailer arrived at Purfleet at around 12.30am on Wednesday, and was picked up by the cab, known as the tractor, which arrived from Northern Ireland via Holyhead in North Wales on Sunday.
• The lorry left the port at Purfleet shortly after 1.05am before police were called to the Waterglade Industrial Park on Eastern Avenue in nearby Grays at 1.40am.