Northern Irish Driver Pleads Guilty Over 39 Vietnamese Truck Deaths

Police officers drive away a lorry (C) in which 39 dead bodies were discovered sparking a murder investigation at Waterglade Industrial Park in Grays, east of London, Britain, on Oct. 23, 2019. Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images

LONDON—Northern Irish truck driver Maurice Robinson has pleaded guilty to 39 counts of manslaughter related to the deaths of Vietnamese people found in a shipping container in southeast England last year, police said on Wednesday.

The victims, 31 men and boys and eight women whose ages ranged from 15 to 44, were discovered in October in a container at the back of a truck driven by Robinson to an industrial estate in Grays in Essex, about 20 miles (32 km) east of London.