The scene of the incident. —Photo braintreeandwithamtimes.co.uk

HÀ NỘI — A man in the UK has pleaded guilty to an immigration offence in connection with the Essex lorry case from last year which saw 39 Vietnamese migrants die.

Gheorghe Nica, 43, accused of manslaughter over the deaths of the migrants whose bodies were discovered in the back of a lorry in Essex, the UK, last year, pleaded guilty to the immigration offence on Wednesday.

At London's Old Bailey court, the British-Romanian dual national admitted to conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.

He is still charged with 39 counts of manslaughter, along with Eamonn Harrison, 23, from Northern Ireland. 

Two other men, Ronan Hughes (41, from Ireland) and Maurice Robinson (26, from Northern Ireland), are also accused of immigration offences.

Robinson, who drove the truck, pleaded guilty to 39 counts of manslaughter at a trial in April. He had previously admitted conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.

Meanwhile, Hughes pleaded guilty to manslaughter on August 28.

On October 23 last year, the bodies of the 39 Vietnamese victims were discovered in the back of a refrigerated lorry at an industrial estate in Grays in Essex, near London.

Autopsies concluded the provisional cause of death of the victims was a combination of hypoxia, or oxygen deprivation, and hyperthermia, or overheating, in an enclosed space. — VNS