Four men are due to go on trial later this week for their alleged part in the deaths of 39 asylum seekers.

Eamonn Harrison, of Mayobridge, County Down, Northern Ireland, will face trial on Tuesday alongside three others after the bodies of the Vietnamise nationals were found near the Dartford Crossing on October 23.

Mr Harrison is alleged to have driven the lorry trailer to the Belgian port of Zeebrugge before it sailed to Purfleet, Essex, where the bodies were discovered.

A Dublin judge decided the 23-year-old should be brought to the UK from the Republic of Ireland in January.

He is charged with 39 counts of manslaughter and one count of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration along with alleged key player Gheorghe Nica, 43, of Langdon Hills, Basildon, Essex.

Valentin Calota, 37, of Birmingham, and Christopher Kennedy, 24, of Co Armagh, Northern Ireland, are also charged with being part of the people-smuggling conspiracy.

Among the men, women and children found in the refrigerated trailer were 10 teenagers, two of them 15-year-old boys.

An inquest heard their medical cause of death was asphyxia and hyperthermia – a lack of oxygen and overheating – in an enclosed space.

All four defendants, who are in custody, deny the charges against them.

The trail is expected to open at the Old Bailey on Tuesday and go on for five weeks.

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