A haulier from Northern Ireland has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of 39 people found dead in the trailer of a lorry in Essex. Ronan Hughes, 40, of Co Armagh, admitted the charge on Friday at the Old Bailey. He was one of several men accused of being part of a people-smuggling ring linked to the deaths last October. The bodies of the 39 Vietnamese nationals were discovered on an industrial estate in Grays, Essex, shortly after the lorry arrived in Purfleet on a ferry in the early hours of 23 October. Among the group were 10 teenagers, two of them 15. An inquest heard that the medical cause of death was asphyxia and hyperthermia – a lack of oxygen and overheating – in an enclosed space.