Translator denies human traffic charge

People were locked in the lorry which contained boxes of tomatoes

A female translator has denied helping to organise the smuggling of Chinese illegal immigrants into Britain.

Ying Guo told Maidstone Crown Court in Kent that she was only told of the plan to bring 60 people into the UK after their arrival, by a friend who had contact with one of the immigrants.

Shocked port officials discovered the bodies of 54 men and four women in a sealed container laden with tomatoes after inspecting a lorry on its arrival at Dover's eastern docks in Kent on 18 June last year.

Miss Guo, 30, of South Woodford, Essex, is accused of being the immigrants' contact in this country and helping to put through bogus asylum applications for them.

Denies conspiracy

She denies conspiracy to smuggle immigrants into the UK.

Co-defendant Dutch lorry driver Perry Wacker, 33, of Rotterdam, Holland, is charged with 58 counts of manslaughter and four further counts of conspiracy to smuggle people into Britain.

He denies all the charges.

The court had heard earlier that the air vent being closed for the six hours it took the lorry to get from Zeebrugge in Belgium to Dover had caused them to suffocate.

The trial continues.