Cassie Sainsbury’s mother and sister to visit her in jail after fallout from paid 60 Minutes TV deal
CASSIE Sainsbury’s mum and sister yelled for her from outside a Bogota jail as her fiance was blocked from seeing her.
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CASSIE Sainsbury’s fiance Scott Broadbridge wasn’t able to make his long awaited visit to see her in her Bogota jail today despite travelling from South Australia to be reunited.
A fixer employed by Seven’s Sunday Night program spent the morning trying to gain the right authorisation for Broadbridge to enter El Beun Pastor prison along with dozens of other men who celebrated Mother’s Day with their incarcerated wives and mothers.
The fixer identified himself as a friend of Scott’s and said the Australian was waiting in a hotel nearby while waiting to gain entry to the jail.
However, the six-hour visiting period passed without him appearing, which sources put down to the paperwork issue.
Saturday is the day set side for men to visit the women’s prison while Sainsbury’s mother and sister are due to visit her on Sunday local time.
Yesterday Lisa Evans and Khala Sainsbury resorted to yelling her name from a public park behind her Bogota jail in a bid to talk to her amid fallout from the paid media deal they made without her knowledge.
The pair were filmed by the 60 Minutes crew with whom they have signed an exclusive contract to talk about Sainsbury’s ordeal — a deal which the 22-year-old told News Corp Australia she is upset with, because they didn’t seek her permission.
They stood for almost half an hour filming the segment, where they waved their arms and called out to Sainsbury on the third floor walkway outside her cell in Patio Five.
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The pair had asked for $1 million in initial negotiations for the story, but the final figure is understood to be much lower.
The Channel Nine deal is in direct competition with one signed by Sainsbury’s fiance, Scott Broadbridge, which she says she supports.
Broadbridge was unable to visit Sainsbury so far today.
A fixer employed by Seven’s Sunday Night program spent the morning trying to gain the right authorisation for Broadbridge to enter El Beun Pastor prison.
Saturday is the day set side for men to visit the women’s prison while Sainsbury’s mother and sister are due to visit her on Sunday local time.
Despite the two cash-for-comment deals, Sainsbury on Thursday spoke in four separate conversations of about five minutes each to News Corp Australia over a public phone in her cell block, during which she revealed she was being bullied by cellmates and was not receiving the right medical attention.
She said she didn’t know about her family’s agreement with 60 Minutes, and that it annoyed her.
“It’s my story. They need to get permission from me to sell my story,” she said.
Sainsbury was arrested on April 11 at Colombia’s El Dorado international airport with 18 plastic-wrapped packages of cocaine.
She has denied she was trying to smuggle the 5.8kg of drugs home to Australia and said instead she was tricked into packing them by a man she only knew as Angelo, who she met and came to trust as “a good friend” after landing in the South American cocaine capital on April 3.
Sainsbury has told police, her family and lawyers, she thought the oddly shaped packages were headphones she had bought for a bargain.
Broadbridge yesterday visited the jail the to sign paperwork ahead of his scheduled visit Saturday, local time, which is when the El Buen Pastor jail allows men to visit their partners.
He will have a six-hour window to spend with Sainsbury, who he will meet after passing through three security checks.
Her family is expected to visit Sunday, local time — the designated day for female guests.
Colombian prison authorities have repeatedly said they would make no special concessions for Sainsbury because she is a foreigner, which means her visitors will be forced to stand in a long line outside the jail waiting to clear security.
With Mother’s Day falling on Sunday, the line is expected to be even longer, and insiders say some visitors line the laneway into the prison from as early as 4am to get in.
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