UK authorities withdrew human trafficking charge against Eamon Ronald Harrison

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

UK authorities withdrew a human trafficking charge against Eamon Ronald Harrison, the Court of Appeal heard on 24 April 2020.

At the remote hearing, Ronan Kennedy SC for the State said UK authorities were no longer seeking to prosecute Harrison for human trafficking under the UK's Modern Slavery Act. He said this would shorten the extradition appeal hearing scheduled for 7 May. Harrison, from Mayobridge, Co Down, was wanted to face 39 counts of manslaughter and conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.

Harrison was alleged to have delivered a trailer to a Belgian port before its onward journey to Britain. The bodies of 39 migrants were found in the trailer in Grays, Essex, on 23 October 2019. In January 2020, Mr Justice Donald Binchy ordered Harrison's extradition to the UK. The judge said Harrison was alleged to have been involved in transporting illegal migrants on two previous occasions, with the same trailer used on one of them.