Monaghan haulier to be extradited to UK to face 39 counts of manslaughter and one count of conspiracy

A High Court judge has ordered the extradition of a Monaghan haulier to the United Kingdom, where he is wanted for allegedly trafficking 39 migrants found dead in a lorry container in Essex last year. 

After the ruling, the High Court heard that Ronan Hughes (40) wants to be surrendered to UK authorities "as soon as possible" and the order will come into effect on Monday. 

Mr Hughes, from Leitrim, Silverstream, Tyholland, Co Monaghan, is suspected of being "the ringleader" of an organised crime group who trafficked the Vietnamese nationals and is wanted in the UK to face 39 counts of manslaughter and one count of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.

The bodies of eight women and 31 men were found in an industrial park in Grays, Essex on October 23, 2019. The migrants had arrived in England last October on a ferry from Zeebrugge in Belgium and the youngest of the victims were two boys aged 15. 

The haulier was present in court today (Fri) for the hearing. He is the second man from Northern Ireland to be arrested here on a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) as part of the Essex police investigation.

Mr Hughes was arrested on the evening of April 20 at his home in Co Monaghan following the endorsement of a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) issued by the police in Essex and was fighting his proposed extradition to the UK through the Irish High Court. 
 

Mr Justice Paul Burns today rejected Mr Hughes' points of objection and made an order to surrender him to the UK authorities. 

Delivering his judgement, Mr Justice Burns said that only where there is obvious ambiguity in the warrant should the court look at considering what is beyond the warrant. "I have found no such ambiguity in the warrant before me," he added. 

The judge said he was satisfied that the alleged offences were committed in the issuing State - the United Kingdom - and ordered the surrender of Mr Hughes. 

Remy Farrell SC, for Mr Hughes, asked the judge for some time to take instructions from his client. Mr Justice Burns agreed to this and adjourned the case for twenty minutes. 

Following this, Counsel for the Minister for Justice Ronan Kennedy SC told the judge that he had spoken to Mr Farrell, who said his client would like to be surrendered as soon as possible. Mr Kennedy said he was applying to the court for the order to take effect from Monday as opposed to the usual 15 day period. 

Mr Justice Burns ordered that Mr Hughes be remanded in custody for not more than 15 days and said the order is to take effect from June 15, 2020. 

Opposing the application for Mr Hughes' surrender to the UK in May, Remy Farrell SC argued that many of the offences alleged against his client had occurred outside of UK territory. Mr Farrell said there was a distinct lack of clarity in the warrant as to whether the issuing State was asserting that the offences were extraterritorial or if they had occurred in their territory. “It is a matter for this court to decide if the offences are extraterritorial,” he said, adding that much of what the issuing judicial authority indicated was that these were extraterritorial offences. 

The lawyer said something can be both territorial and extraterritorial at the same time and there can be competing assertions of jurisdiction. The warrant seemed to be asserting that a certain extraterritorial position existed, he maintained. He said that on any view much of what was being alleged against his client had occurred outside the UK. 

However, Counsel for the Minister for Justice Ronan Kennedy SC told the High Court extradition hearing in May that the legal submission of "extraterritoriality" was “a complete red herring” and the court should not engage in a “fanciful debate” as to whether other States had jurisdiction to try these offences. The manslaughter charges carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment and the count of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration has a maximum sentence of 14 years, he said. 

Mr Kennedy further submitted that whilst section 44 of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003 had given rise to difficulty in previous cases, most notably in the case of Ian Bailey, no difficulties arose in this instant.

The barrister said Mr Farrell’s legal submissions were "fundamentally misconceived" as they were built on the entirely incorrect premise that the UK was seeking to assert extraterritorial jurisdiction, where it was abundantly clear from the EAW that the offences of manslaughter and conspiracy had occurred within the UK. 

Mr Kennedy said Mr Farrell’s argument “did not get off the starting blocks” and he asked the court not to go down “the rabbit hole” of whether the offences were committed on “the high seas or land” but instead focus on what was actually stated in the EAW, applying the principles of mutual trust and confidence.

Mr Hughes and his younger brother Christopher (34) have been wanted in connection with the deaths since the beginning of the investigation, with Essex Police making an extraordinary live appeal last November for the siblings to hand themselves in. Their trucking firm is based in Tyholland, about 7km from the Armagh border.

The warrant alleges that Mr Hughes had unlawfully killed 39 Vietnamese nationals who were found dead in the back of a trailer in the UK between October 22 and 24, 2019. It is alleged the migrants had been brought into the UK illegally by Mr Hughes and his co-conspirators.

It is also alleged that Mr Hughes had also conspired with others to facilitate the illegal entry of people including the 39 deceased persons into the UK between May 1, 2018 and October 24, 2019.

It is alleged that Mr Hughes "organised, paid for the travel and controlled the drivers who collected the migrants." Evidence was given at the respondent's bail hearing that €200,000 had been frozen in 33 bank accounts linked to Mr Hughes and his family and that the accused had last year bought a 2019 BMW X5, valued at €108,000, which has since been seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB). 

Counsel for the Minister for Justice previously submitted that Mr Hughes operated an international haulage business with extensive contacts abroad, used a Northern Ireland driving licence, has a detailed knowledge of ports, has a history of smuggling as well as access to extensive funds.