Cassie Sainsbury’s full interview from Bogota prison
WORLD EXCLUSIVE: FROM her family and fiance to her future, Cassie Sainsbury opened up from inside prison. Read the transcript. HEAR THE AUDIO
WORLD EXCLUSIVE
This is Cassie Sainsbury’s conversation with News Corp Australia’s Sarah Blake in Bogota.
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Q: You have said you were set up — can you tell us what happened?
I am not really allowed to speak about my case at the moment sorry
Q: How are you getting on in there?
Well, it’s prison, but I’m all right.
Q: How are you going, do you need anything?
I am OK. I don’t need anything my family is arriving this week.
Q: How are you getting on with the other inmates?
Well, it has its moments, they just see me as a foreigner so I am seen
as problematic by the other inmates.
Q: Why do they see you as problematic?
I don’t exactly know why but they all seem to have a problem with me.
Q: Are they threatening you, have they hurt you?
They are all talking about me quite obviously behind my back and
they’re not afraid to push past me and push me around.
Q: Do you feel scared in there or are you OK?
I’m all right, I’m dealing.
Q: Do the foreigners generally stick together, are you friends with them?
Most foreigners are in the same patio but I am in a patio that is considered the least dangerous so there’s a mixture of Colombians and everything as well here.
Q: How are you adapting to the prison?
The food’s horrible and I am having lots of issues with the doctors here and all that sort of stuff because they are not actually attending to the problems that I am telling them.
Q: Do you think you will be there a long time?
I don’t know really. It’s hard to say.
Q: You mentioned the doctors weren’t really looking after you — can you tell us a little more about what you mean?
I started losing feeling in my arms, it’s not all the time but its becoming an often occurring thing and when I went to the doctors about it they basically just gave me vitamins and said it’s stress
And I said well no because you know this happened a few years ago and I lost complete feeling in half my body and they just wanted to just like push it under the rug. And I don’t eat red meat and I told the doctor I needed to see a dietitian and they just basically said oh well you have to eat what you’ve been given.
Q: What are they feeding you?
Basically you always get rice and some sort of red meat. Sometimes you get chicken which is fine and salad but usually its some kind of offal looking meat.
Q: Is your fiance coming over?
Yes he’s coming over as well. They are coming separately but within a day of each other.
Q: How are the other prisoners giving you a hard time — aside from pushing you around, are they threatening you?
Not yet but I feel like its not very far away because there was a photo leaked of me here and I made a complaint to the guards about it because I didn’t give permission for a photo to be sent out and the confiscated a mobile phone here and everyone I m guessing everyone must have used it and that created a big problem for me because everyone hated me, they were pushing me around telling me am problematic and that foreigners are no good.
Q: What are you missing most about Australia?
It’s very different. I think it’s the things that you take advantage of (take for granted) like the food, and access to doctors and that sort of stuff because I mean it’s winter in Australia at the moment so the weather’s not really a big deal. I think it’s my family I miss the most.
Q: What’s I like in there — do you have a blanket, is it cold?
It’s not too bad here. But it is cold and you cant lock the door, so there’s no security there. People do steal a lot here. You do get a blanket a mattress, a pillow and everything.
Q: How are you going?
I’m okay.
Q: Did you know there’s a lot of news about you?
Yes. A little bit.
Q: Are you okay with it?
No not really.
Q: Would you prefer if no-one knew about what’s happened? I didn’t care if people found out.
It’s making my case worse. Everything I say affects the case. If I had been sentenced it wouldn’t
be such a big deal.
Q: Can you talk about the case? What are you planning to do?
No I can’t talk about the case, right now, I don’t know what I’m planning to do because I’m still trying to find a lawyer that I can trust.
Q: Because the guy you spoke to he wasn’t so good?
Orlando? No he’s been talking to the media about my case which isn’t okay.
Q: Your mum and sister have arrived. Are you looking forward to seeing them?
Yeah it would be good. I’m more looking forward to Scott arriving.
Q: When does he get here?
Tomorrow or Saturday I believe.
Q: Do you have to wait a while to see them?
I think I’ll have to wait a few days.
Q: So what’s it like in there?
It’s not nice. It’s not nice. And being a foreigner it doesn’t help the situation either. It’s harder because I don’t speak the language.
Q: Are you going to do Spanish classes?
Yeah. I’m think I understand it to a degree but it’s still quite hard. People are taking advantage of the fact that I don’t speak Spanish. Somebody tricked me into a photo recently which was sent to the media which was the first photo of me in prison. So I didn’t give permission
for that to go out nor did I know that it was going out. And then the girl that took it and the other girls that were involved in it, they’re completely denying it which I don’t even know why they’re bothering to deny it. So that’s one of them. But there’s just a lot of chaos here.
Q: Do you feel safe?
Sometimes. Well, quite a few of the inmates here are very pushy with me. They push past me. They start abusing me in Spanish because they know I don’t understand it and I haven’t actually done anything wrong.
Q: Do you feel like life has dealt you a harsh blow at the moment?
Yep. Definitely. I’m handling it but every day I’m here I have good days and I have bad days but every day is hard and I could handle it a bit better I guess.
Q: Do you think you’re there for a matter of months or years?
I don’t know. I’m hoping it’s months but we’ll see how it all goes. I think the main issue that foreigners have here is that they don’t care. The first week I was here a foreigner died here.
Q: Do you have a message for people in Australia?
Not really. Just be safe when you’re travelling alone. I don’t know.
Q: There’s a few stories about people paying for access to you. Do you know about that?
No I didn’t. My mum and sister haven’t told me anything of what they’re doing. All I knew is that they were coming.
Q: Do you feel annoyed about that?
Yes because also they’re not telling me. They’re just going out and doing it on their own. That’s my problem. It’s my story. They need to get permission from me to sell my story.
Q: Do you wish they hadn’t?
Yeah sometimes like I do, because I have been told by some people that are involved in the case that the media is making it worse for me because it’s making certain people uncomfortable and the case so yeah.
Q: Would you rather there wasn’t people buying stories?
Right now I wish there wasn’t the media. Once I’ve been sentenced sure I’m happy to talk about what happened because my case isn’t in jeopardy then. What’s happened has happened. If I’m guilty or innocent nothing is at risk with the media involved.
Q: The police didn’t ask for the footage until Monday this week.
Did they release it?
Q: No. They seized it. They did release some footage of you. Does that upset you?
No that doesn’t upset me. I hope they find the person.
Q: Can you tell me any more about him?
Right now I’m not allowed to. I’ve been told to keep everything quiet until they begin the process just because they don’t want anything getting out about what’s happening.
Q: So he was just a convincing person?
Yeah
Q: Scott will be there over the weekend?
Yeah hopefully.
Q: Did he do a deal with the media?
Yes he did. I know he has because he asked me for permission, and he’s done one with 7 News I believe and that’s basically they’re trying to put a positive spin on what’s been said in the media.
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