A MAN from Birmingham has been charged in connection with Essex Police's investigation into the deaths of 39 Vietnamese nationals in West Thurrock last October.

Valentin Calota, 37, of Cossington Road, was due to appear at Basildon Magistrates' Court today, Monday, 16 March.

He has been charged with conspiring to do an act to facilitate the commission of a breach of UK immigration law by a non-EU person between 1 May 2018 and 24 October 2019.

The bodies of eight women and 31 men were found in a refrigerated trailer attached to a lorry in an industrial park in the borough in the early hours of October 23. They were in a refrigerated lorry trailer that had travelled from Zeebrugge in Belgium to Purfleet, making the short trip to Waterglade Industrial Park where the lorry driver opened the doors to make a gruesome find.

The driver, Maurice Robinson, 25, from Laurel Drive in Craigavon, Northern Ireland, has been charged with the manslaughter of the 39 victims as well as people trafficking, immigration and money laundering offences.