Category Archives: Essex

Essex lorry deaths: Vietnam police charge seven over role in trafficking

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Police say one migrant was charged $22,000 before being taken to China, France and then the UK

Police in Vietnam have charged seven people in connection with the deaths of 39 migrants whose bodies were discovered in the back of a lorry in the UK in 2019, authorities said late on Thursday.

The victims, who included two 15-year-old boys, were mostly from two provinces in north-central Vietnam, where poor job prospects, encouragement by authorities, smuggling gangs and environmental issues have fuelled migration.

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Families call for inquests into deaths of Vietnamese migrants

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Letter calls for full inquests into deaths of 39 people in a refrigerated lorry last year

Families of the 39 Vietnamese migrants whose bodies were discovered in a refrigerated lorry in Essex last year and campaigners in the UK are calling for inquests to be held into the deaths.

While criminal proceedings related to the tragic deaths continue, there has been no indication whether there will be any wider investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident.

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Overturned crane closes both directions of the M25 in Essex

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London orbital motorway is likely to be affected for a considerable time, say police

The M25 has been shut after a serious collision involving a crane that overturned and crashed over both sides of the carriageway.

The incident happened at junction 27 with the M11 in Essex on Friday evening. It has caused huge tailbacks in both directions including more than 10 miles on the clockwise carriageway of the motorway around London.

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Vietnamese families struggle to repatriate Essex lorry victims

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Relatives say they cannot afford return of bodies, but do not wish to accept ashes

The families of the 39 Vietnamese people found dead in a refrigerated lorry in Essex last month are facing financial difficulties over repatriating the bodies of their relatives.

Bui Huy Cuong, the deputy chairman of Can Loc district’s people’s committee in Ha Tinh province, where 10 of the victims are from, said local officials visited families and encouraged them to receive ashes instead of bodies, but “there was unofficial and incorrect information online saying that the British government will cover all costs [of bringing the bodies back to Vietnam]”, leading to confusion.

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Police could share immigration data from lorry deaths appeal

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Essex police refuse to confirm statuses of those who respond will not be given to Home Office

Essex police have refused to confirm they will not share data with the Home Office on the immigration status of anyone responding to recent public appeals for information on the deaths of 39 people in a lorry.

The force last week urged those who may have information to come forward “without fear”.

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Belgian police find 12 people ‘safe and well’ in refrigerated lorry

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Migrants were found a week after UK police launched murder investigation into death of 39 people in Essex

Belgian police say they have found 12 people “safe and well” in a refrigerated lorry, one week after 39 people lost their lives in a similar vehicle that had travelled to Essex via continental Europe.

The migrants were discovered in the back of a fruit and vegetable lorry on the motorway, near the Flemish town of Oud-Turnhout, in the early hours of Wednesday. Police said they found 12 adult men: 11 Syrians and one Sudanese citizen.

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Bill Liddell obituary

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My husband, Bill Liddell, who has died aged 82, came from a mining area in Tyne and Wear, but became an expert on the history of somewhere much further south – Essex.

Having moved to the county in the early 1960s, he played an active part in the Essex Society for Archaeology and History and provided material for some of the many volumes of the encyclopedic Victoria County History of Essex book series. He also edited Essex and the Great Revolt of 1381, published in 1982 and, with me, wrote Imagined Land: Essex in Prose and Poetry (1996).

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Driver arrested after two die in Essex car crash

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Another two people are in a life-threatening condition after BMW hits tree in Loughton

Two people have died and another two are in a life-threatening condition after a car crashed into a tree in Loughton, Essex.

A 21-year-old man from Loughton was arrested at the scene on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving, causing serious injury by dangerous driving and perverting the course of justice.

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Britain’s equivalent to Tutankhamun found in Southend-on-Sea

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Burial chamber of a wealthy nobleman in Prittlewell shows Anglo-Saxon Essex in new light

An Anglo-Saxon burial chamber found on a grassy verge next to a busy road and not far from an Aldi is being hailed as Britain’s equivalent of Tutankhamun’s tomb.

Archaeologists on Thursday will reveal the results of years of research into the burial site of a rich, powerful Anglo-Saxon man found at Prittlewell in Southend-on-Sea, Essex.

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Man dies after small plane crashes in Essex field

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Police say man in his 50s was found dead at the scene in Belchamp Walter, near Suffolk

A man in his 50s has died after a small plane crashed in a field in Belchamp Walter in Essex, police have said.

Emergency services were called to the village near the border with Suffolk just before noon on Sunday after reports that a light aircraft had come down in a field.

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