After a 10-week trial at the Old Bailey in London, Eamonn Harrison, a 24-year-old lorry driver from Northern Ireland, and Gheorghe Nica, 43, from Essex were found guilty of 39 counts of manslaughter and guilty of one count of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration, according to the police statement.

The bodies of 39 Vietnamese nationals were discovered on October 23 last year in the refrigerated container at an industrial site in Grays, 32 km east of London. This incident involved human trafficking and illegal border crossing.

The investigation result showed that all the migrants died from asphyxiation.