Spardo:
Having tried very hard on another forum to make the case for the driver’s innocence I am very disappointed at this news and, if he is guilty, cannot believe how stupid he’s been.
I thought he was in custody for so long was because they wanted to get as much info from him to find the real culprits.
So, if he knew why he was sent to collect that trailer, and was experienced with frigos therefore knowing they were all but airtight, he did at least show some spark of humanity in opening the doors within 15 minutes of picking it up, re-inforced by his call to the ambulance. That is why he will have been charged, knowing what he was asked to do, but I hope that his taking the risk of prosecution onto himself because of his humanity, will be duly recognised in sentencing if found guilty.
If he had any humanity he wouldnt have got involved in the first place. Hope he gets 10 years and all his proceeds of crime stripped
Rowley010:
One crucial fact that I seem to have missed in all this is what was the tip off? Why was the trailer stopped? How was the alarm raised?
Driver picks up trailer and 30 mins later he’s stopped and arrested.
He wasn’t stopped, he was arrested because he phoned for an ambulance and the ambulance service relayed the information to the Police. He went off-route and opened his trailer doors on an industrial estate notorious as being somewhere where illegal immigrants are picked up by minibus after being landed at Purfleet. It is being claimed on his behalf that this was done to retrieve paperwork from the trailer, but to me this makes no sense at all.
Shows how much crap goes around in these situations. Story I saw said he COULDNT open the trailer doors as it was sealed, which is why I was wondering how anyone knew those people were in there. But obviously him being the one opening the doors is a very different story to that…
So he has gone to let them out, realised they aren’t in a rush and called for 39 ambulances.
Every single reporter from the BBC in his ignorance is still calling the trailer a container. Just about every report is referring to - 25 without any evidence to suggest this is in any way true. The only picture showing the inside of the trialer ( SUN) shows what appears to be bulk bins forming at least part of the load. I tought the normal procedure was for an accused not to be named until charged. I can see the defence making a pretty strong argument that a fair trial is looking unlikely given the media coverage and naming of the accused. We shall see.
Spardo:
Having tried very hard on another forum to make the case for the driver’s innocence I am very disappointed at this news and, if he is guilty, cannot believe how stupid he’s been.
I thought he was in custody for so long was because they wanted to get as much info from him to find the real culprits.
So, if he knew why he was sent to collect that trailer, and was experienced with frigos therefore knowing they were all but airtight, he did at least show some spark of humanity in opening the doors within 15 minutes of picking it up, re-inforced by his call to the ambulance. That is why he will have been charged, knowing what he was asked to do, but I hope that his taking the risk of prosecution onto himself because of his humanity, will be duly recognised in sentencing if found guilty.
If he had any humanity he wouldnt have got involved in the first place. Hope he gets 10 years and all his proceeds of crime stripped
He opened the doors to let them out. One can only imagine what went through his mind when he saw them sprawled on the floor, but he had no way of knowing that they were all dead and made a good call by dialling 999.
Can we stop the arguments about English/Irish/British? And I think we have now established that there is no rule/law that says he should have opened the doors before leaving the dock.
cav551:
Every single reporter from the BBC in his ignorance is still calling the trailer a container. Just about every report is referring to - 25 without any evidence to suggest this is in any way true. The only picture showing the inside of the trialer ( SUN) shows what appears to be bulk bins forming at least part of the load. I tought the normal procedure was for an accused not to be named until charged. I can see the defence making a pretty strong argument that a fair trial is looking unlikely given the media coverage and naming of the accused. We shall see.
From the BBC this morning:
The police investigation continues, following the discovery of the trailer in Grays, Essex, last Wednesday.
Maurice Robinson, 25, has been charged with the manslaughter of 31 men and eight women.
He has also been charged with people trafficking, immigration and money laundering offences, Essex Police said.
Cosmic:
Seeing that the driver has been charged with a number of serious offences, I was prompted to scroll back through my Facebook timeline, as I was curious to revisit some of the hastily-crafted “Support Mo” memes, which began to be circulated. Reading some of the comments on there, there was a few saying he had been released without charge, one guy even posted that Mo was back safely with his family at home! Personally, I would have wished the driver to be proven innocent, but as time ticked away, it was obvious that the police had something on him. It does rather illustrate the dangers of social media, people’s willingness to spread misinformation without regard for the facts, not being prepared to wait and see what happens, basically drawing attention to themselves to show how much they ‘care’, urging others to be outraged at perceived injustices, etc.
Social Media is a massive influencer in many spheres.
As a “news source” it is unedited for bias nor fact checked. Even those who have no bad intent can cause harm by repeating lies and falsehoods.
Judging by what was reported when this first happened; the mainstream media could also be accused of lack of fact checking, even on Friday the BBC was still calling it a container. I suppose you can’t accuse them of unedited bias, its properly edited into their reports.
Ha!
After years of us telling people “No, thats not a trailer thats a container” they start saying container when its a freaking trailer! Frustrating talking to people who dont know the basic elements of transport, agreed.
Dunno about bias in this case?
Ignorance of the correct terms, certainly, but not in a truly material way, I reckon. Whether or not the fridge container had a chassis and wheels is important to us, but not to Joe Publics understanding, Id say.
Bias in other respects here? Dunno.
Olympic size leaps to conclusions earlier on in lots of reports it`s true…some of it from the Essex Police possibly too? (regarding nationality of deceased victims, I mean)
nightline:
I hoped he knew nothing but am delighted hes English been from northern Ireland at least hes not Irish so people can’t say he is
Err, if he’s from Northern Ireland then surely he’s Irish? He would only be English if he was from England. Or am I missing something here?
How do you make that out if he’s from northern Ireland he’s British it’s part of the uk
Wake up
Ok, well in that case if you are from the Republic of Ireland then you are British as the Republic of Ireland is part of the British Isles, therefore by your logic if you are from the Republic of Ireland you are English.
Harry is right here, you are only English if you were born in England,
Great Britain includes England, Scotland and Wales, so you are not British if born anywhere in Ireland,
Great Britain and Northern Ireland form the United Kingdom,
so if born in either England, Scotland, Wales or NI you are classed as UK citizens, so you will be either British or Irish
and All of the above plus Ireland and the surrounding Islands make up the British Isles, has no relevance to Citizenship,
Franglais:
Social Media is a massive influencer in many spheres.
As a “news source” it is unedited for bias nor fact checked. Even those who have no bad intent can cause harm by repeating lies and falsehoods.
Judging by what was reported when this first happened; the mainstream media could also be accused of lack of fact checking, even on Friday the BBC was still calling it a container. I suppose you can’t accuse them of unedited bias, its properly edited into their reports.
Ha!
After years of us telling people “No, thats not a trailer thats a container” they start saying container when its a freaking trailer! Frustrating talking to people who dont know the basic elements of transport, agreed.
Dunno about bias in this case?
Ignorance of the correct terms, certainly, but not in a truly material way, I reckon. Whether or not the fridge container had a chassis and wheels is important to us, but not to Joe Publics understanding, Id say.
Bias in other respects here? Dunno.
Olympic size leaps to conclusions earlier on in lots of reports it`s true…some of it from the Essex Police possibly too? (regarding nationality of deceased victims, I mean)
I wasn’t really noting bias in this case, but even if the journalists weren’t sure of the correct terms isn’t their job to check.
The first reports I heard were that the truck and Container had come from Bulgaria to Ireland and then to the UK via Holyhead.
The fact it was a flagged out unit operated form NI and the trailer had come on a cross channel route took a couple of days and as for the Police leaping to the conclusion they were Chinese, maybe with hindsight some information could have waited to be confirmed, but it’s a problem with 24/7 news coverage filling TV, Radio and Internet, the media outlets leap on any scrap of information and build a story round it, however wrong their conclusions might be, a lot of this then gets repeated on social media feeding even more fake news.
muckles:
I wasn’t really noting bias in this case, but even if the journalists weren’t sure of the correct terms isn’t their job to check.
The first reports I heard were that the truck and Container had come from Bulgaria to Ireland and then to the UK via Holyhead.
The fact it was a flagged out unit operated form NI and the trailer had come on a cross channel route took a couple of days and as for the Police leaping to the conclusion they were Chinese, maybe with hindsight some information could have waited to be confirmed, but it’s a problem with 24/7 news coverage filling TV, Radio and Internet, the media outlets leap on any scrap of information and build a story round it, however wrong their conclusions might be, a lot of this then gets repeated on social media feeding even more fake news.
Agreed.
Too much pressure to be first, and report something new, rather than check whether it`s actually true or not.
Maybe the same applies to the cops in this case? If they aren`t continually making statements some accuse them of doing nowt. It is a question of balance of course, they should be accountable, but not there to provide fodder for the paps.
nightline:
I hoped he knew nothing but am delighted hes English been from northern Ireland at least hes not Irish so people can’t say he is
Err, if he’s from Northern Ireland then surely he’s Irish? He would only be English if he was from England. Or am I missing something here?
How do you make that out if he’s from northern Ireland he’s British it’s part of the uk
Wake up
Ok, well in that case if you are from the Republic of Ireland then you are British as the Republic of Ireland is part of the British Isles, therefore by your logic if you are from the Republic of Ireland you are English.
So that makes us all British Islanders then Harry. A bit like South Sea Islanders then, but a bit cooler.
But joking aside, your point is taken. The term British Isles and Great Britain are geographical terms and nothing to do with nationality. If your origin or naturalisation is from Eire, you are Irish, if from the UK of GB and NI, you are British. If from the island of Ireland you are Irish (geographically speaking), and if from Great Britain you are either English, Welsh or Scottish (again geographically speaking as non of the 4 parts of the UK confers individual citizenship status).
To get back to the driver and his trailer for a moment, there is one scenario where I would have been tempted to break the seals and open the trailer only 15 minutes after collecting it.
And that is, assuming I was completely innocent, if I had paperwork and instructions to collect a trailer fully loaded with 20 tonnes plus of cargo and in that 15 minutes even my big brutal Scania was making too light an effort of pulling it, I might well suspect that an almighty ■■■■-up had occurred and that I had got the wrong trailer. Just a thought.
I suspect something bigger will come out of this. I can’t imagine this is first load of people that have been smuggled into the country in the back of a box trailer by traffickers & it will always involve somebody in the know having to open the doors to let them out. This particular trafficking attempt went wrong.
It’s pretty clear now that this young driver knew they were in there & no doubt his whole world fell apart when he found the pile of dead bodies. His young age & naivety have been taken advantage of by whatever criminal gang managed to rope him into this for a pile of cash.
If you turn the fridge motor on, say at +5 degrees, does it pull in fresh air from outside, or does it just circulate the air that is inside the trailer?
chrisdalott:
If you turn the fridge motor on, say at +5 degrees, does it pull in fresh air from outside, or does it just circulate the air that is inside the trailer?
Some frigos have small air vents, but most are pretty much totally sealed. The air inside is re-circulated when fridge is running.
Your fridge or freezer at home is sealed the same way, multiple seals around thick doors.
Cosmic:
Seeing that the driver has been charged with a number of serious offences, I was prompted to scroll back through my Facebook timeline, as I was curious to revisit some of the hastily-crafted “Support Mo” memes, which began to be circulated. Reading some of the comments on there, there was a few saying he had been released without charge, one guy even posted that Mo was back safely with his family at home! Personally, I would have wished the driver to be proven innocent, but as time ticked away, it was obvious that the police had something on him. It does rather illustrate the dangers of social media, people’s willingness to spread misinformation without regard for the facts, not being prepared to wait and see what happens, basically drawing attention to themselves to show how much they ‘care’, urging others to be outraged at perceived injustices, etc.
Social Media is a massive influencer in many spheres.
As a “news source” it is unedited for bias nor fact checked. Even those who have no bad intent can cause harm by repeating lies and falsehoods.
As a tool of malign players it is possibly more useful than an atomic arsenal.
Less serious situation, but there was a young girl around my area that caused an absolute ■■■■ storm on social media about a mouse being ladled out of a curry dish when someone was being served at an Indian restaurant (a spotlessly clean, and very well thought of Indian restaurant at that). Not sure on the final outcome of it all, but last I heard was the restaurant had left it in the hands of their solicitors to deal with their damaged reputation etc.
rob22888:
It’s pretty clear now that this young driver knew they were in there & no doubt his whole world fell apart when he found the pile of dead bodies. His young age & naivety have been taken advantage of by whatever criminal gang managed to rope him into this for a pile of cash.
No naivety what so ever, just bear in mind this is a driver at 25 who already has 5 years experience under his belt, normal enough for Irish drivers, clued in to all that’s going on. I’m sure all will come out over the next few weeks.
depending on who grasses up who,then coming from over here itl end up one side or the other of the boyos in balaclavas at the back of it all.
itl just depend on what deal those in custody make,or if theyre smart enough to keep quiet,which dont exactly look the way its going now.
they will get looked after if they say nothing,or be looked after differently depending on how much they blab.
doomed if they do,or doomed if they dont…
It’s being reported in the media that 3 artics were involved and the overall operation was to smuggle in 100 clandestines but only 2 made the journey. The driver of the other one was the guy arrested at the port of Dublin, also in his 20’s.
newmercman:
The driver’s nationality or that of the people inside the trailer is irrelevant, I’ve removed one racist comment, the next one will get this thread shut down.
Moderator when I opened this thread as I’m sure you saw I did request that it’s for information and adult discussion and no racist remarks. If people on here who are responsible enough to be in charge of a 44 ton truck on a public highway aren’t responsible enough to keep racism to themselves then please do remove the thread as there’s no place for it on a thread that I started. Thanks.
