Dutch lorry driver Perry Wacker was today sentenced to 14 years in jail for the manslaughter of 58 Chinese illegal immigrants found dead in his lorry at the British port of Dover last June.
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Perry Wacker, jailed for 14 years
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Mr Justice Alan Moses, sitting at Maidstone Crown Court in southern England, told Wacker (33) he "demonstrated cynical exploitation" of his victims.
The judge sentenced Wacker's fellow defendant Ying Guo (30) of South Woodford, Essex, to six years for conspiring to smuggle illegal immigrants into the UK.
Wacker, of Rotterdam, was found guilty of 58 counts of manslaughter and of conspiracy to smuggle illegal immigrants into Britain on Sunday June 18th, 2000.
The jury of nine women and three men convicted both defendants on unanimous verdicts after nearly 13 hours of deliberations following a six-week trial.
Wacker swallowed hard when the guilty verdicts were passed, while Guo stared at the ground showing no emotion.
Sixty Chinese immigrants tried to illegally enter Britain hidden in the back of a sealed lorry container laden with tomatoes on June 18th last year, the court heard during the trial.
Fifty-four men and four women suffocated during the six-hour ferry crossing from Zeebrugge in Belgium to Dover in Kent.
Two men survived the journey.
Wacker "sealed their fate" by closing the only air-vent on the trailer before boarding the ferry to avoid his human cargo being detected by immigration officials.
Mr Victor Temple QC, prosecuting, said: "Wacker made no effort to check the welfare of the Chinese, still less to open the vent."
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Port workers said Wacker showed no emotion when his lorry was stopped and searched at Dover.
The immigrants were packed into the container as this would mean more profit for the gang, known as snakeheads. At £20,000 per person the human cargo was worth nearly £1.2m to the gang.
Guo was the contact for the gang in London, and was to bail them out of detention centres if they were caught coming into Britain, and would then process bogus asylum claims for them.
PA