Burning questions that need answering in UK death truck case
The grisly discovery of 39 bodies in the back of a refrigerated lorry has sparked the biggest murder investigation in UK history. These are the questions that need answering.
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It’s a case that’s shocked the world.
Thirty-nine bodies discovered at the back of a truck's refrigerated container in Essex, London.
Mo Robinson, 25, has been arrested following the horrific find that has sparked the largest murder investigation in UK history.
Police are giving little away with their inquiries.
The deaths appear to be part of people smuggling operation but it could take time before we establish the facts.
These are the burning questions that need to be answered:
WHO ARE THE DEAD?
Thirty-nine bodies were found in the refrigerated container but they have yet to be identified. Police have confirmed that the bodies are Chinese nationals — 31 men and eight women. There were reports the dead were a group of asylum seekers.
“All are believed to be Chinese nationals,” Essex Police said in a statement. China’s foreign ministry said its embassy staff in London were heading to the scene “to verify this situation”.
An embassy spokesperson said Chinese authorities had read the reports with a “heavy heart” and were in close contact with police “to seek clarification and confirmation”.
One of the bodies previously thought to have been a teenager has been identified as a woman.
HOW DID THE 39 PEOPLE DIE?
A male has been arrested on suspicion of murder but the cause of the victims’ deaths has not been disclosed. The dead were found in a refrigerated container, raising speculation they froze to death. The refrigerated container was capable of plunging to temperatures of -25 degrees Celsius, which could have killed those on board quickly if it was turned on.
Pippa Mills, deputy chief of Essex Police, said the process of conducting post- mortem examinations and identifying the victims would be “lengthy and complex.”
“This is an incredibly sensitive and high-profile investigation, and we are working swiftly to gather as full a picture as possible as to how these people lost their lives,” she said.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Chinese Embassy employees in the UK were driving to the scene of the crime to aid the investigation.
WERE THERE ACCOMPLICES?
Police were chasing more people involved in the reported people smuggling operation following the driver’s arrest.
The investigation is expected to take some time but it’s believed the 39 deaths were part of a people smuggling operation gone wrong.
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IS THE SUSPECT KNOWN TO POLICE?
Police have arrested the driver, Maurice ‘Mo’ Robinson, 25, and he has been detained for another 24 hours, but they have not revealed if Northern Irish man is known to them.
They also raided two houses in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, but have not said if Mr Robinson has any connection with them.
However, a former schoolmate of the suspect told The Sun: “When I found out who it was I really could not believe it.
“He was in my year for two years. Everybody that has ever met him has only positive things to say.
“He is a really chilled, good, decent guy. All the people he is friends with are from a really nice group. He is just a normal, decent guy. You can’t imagine anyone saying anything bad about him.”
HOW WAS THE SUSPECT ARRESTED?
We know the truck and container left Essex Port at 1.05am (local time) on Wednesday before police arrived at Waterglad Industrial Part in Grays, Essex, at 1.40am where they found the 39 people dead in the trailer.
However, they have not said at what point they apprehended Mr Robinson, nor where the arrest took place.
ARE THE MURDERS CONNECTED TO BREXIT?
Some have suggested that if it was a people smuggling operation gone wrong, that it may have been part of an attempt to get into the UK before the Brexit deadline on October 31 and beyond when Britian leaves the European Union.
Robinson and other drivers who may have been at the wheel before him would have taken advantage of the European Union’s generally open borders to travel in several countries without border checks.
Britain remains an attractive destination for immigrants, even as the UK is negotiating its divorce from the EU.
In Parliament, Prime Minister Boris Johnson put aside the Brexit crisis, at least for a few minutes, and vowed that the people traffickers would be found and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
“All such traders in human beings should be hunted down and brought to justice,” he said.