AS the trial of men accused of involvement in the deaths of 39 would-be illegal immigrants from Vietnam whose bodies were discovered in Thurrock last year moves towards the end of another week, a lorry driver accused of their manslaughter has told jurors he is "devastated" for their families but denies knowing they were in his trailer.

Eamonn Harrison, 23, was captured on CCTV as he dropped off a container containing the human cargo at Zeebrugge in Belgium on October 22 last year.

On arrival at Purfleet early the next day, the container was picked up by Maurice Robinson who discovered the Vietnamese nationals, aged 15 to 44, had all died.

Harrison, of Newry, Co Down, has denied their manslaughters and being involved in two successful smuggling runs around October 11 and 18 last year.

Instead he claims he through he was transporting loads of "stolen goods" for his boss Ronan Hughes because he owed him money after crashing one of his lorries while he was drunk.

Quizzed by his defence counsel at the Old Bailey Harrison denied he knew there were any people in the lorry container he was hauling and felt 'devastated by their death.'

The court heard that in May 2018, Harrison had been stopped by Border Force officials who found 18 Vietnamese migrants sitting on boxes of waffles in his trailer. Again he denied knowledge of them being there and was issued a civil penalty notice before being freed.

Harrison and alleged organiser Gheorghe Nica, 43, of Basildon, deny 39 counts of manslaughter. Harrison, lorry driver Christopher Kennedy, 24, of Co Armagh, and Valentin Calota, 37, of Birmingham, have denied people smuggling, which Nica admits.

Jurors have heard that Robinson, 26, of Craigavon in Northern Ireland, and Hughes, 41, of Co Armagh, have admitted the manslaughters.