Convicted drug mule Cassie Sainsbury has get-out-of-jail plan

CONVICTED Australian drug mule Cassie Sainsbury could be out of jail in just six months under a Schapelle Corby-style escape plan.

Cassie Sainsbury arrives at court to hear her fate.

DRUG mule Cassie Sainsbury could be out of jail and living in Bogota with her mum in six months under a Schapelle Corby-style escape plan.

Her lawyer Orlando Herran said Sainsbury’s mother Lisa Evans and her partner are “seriously pursuing” a plan to move to Bogota and sponsor her in home detention, which will be on offer after she has been in jail for a year.

Sainsbury, 22, has been fined $130,000 and sentenced to six years’ jail, which could be cut in half with good behaviour, for trying to smuggle almost 6kg of cocaine out of Bogota on April 12.

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Cassie Sainsbury at a Bogota court in Colombia Picture: Ivan Valencia

Sainsbury has offered several versions of how she came to be carrying the drugs, but a judge yesterday accepted her most recent story — that she had been threatened into the crime.

She had said a mystery man named Angelo tricked her after she agreed to transport documents from Bogota to London, instead packing drugs into her suitcase and threatening her family.

“She isn’t a criminal. She made a mistake, she allowed herself to be tricked and she didn’t use the means at her disposal by not asking authorities for help,” Mr Herran said outside court.

He said the judge believed Sainsbury was a small part of a significant criminal gang that had threatened her family to make her smuggle the drugs.

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Cassie Sainsbury's mum, Lisa Evans, is considering a move to Bogota. Picture: Ivan Valencia

“She was threatened to respect the deal she had made to arrive at the airport with the drugs,” he said.

“The investigation has uncovered a larger operation and investigators suspect she was used as bait to distract the authorities whilst other people smuggled drugs out undetected. The judge manifestly felt that people who undergo this process are victims: victims of deceit, victims of their own socio-economic conditions and victims of ignorance regarding Colombian law.

Sainsbury, a former fitness instructor and sex worker, faced up to 30 years in El Buen Pastor jail before the deal was proposed last month.

Khala Sainsbury, Cassie’s sister, outside her Adelaide home. Picture: Tait Schmaal

Home detention is commonly granted by Bogota’s overcrowded jail system.

“It’s a real possibility and it’s the main direction the defence is going in,” Mr Herran said.

“Her family’s hopes are hingeing on it. When they first arrived they had this idea of Colombia as an underdeveloped country, a lawless land with mafias openly roaming the streets and carrying guns.

“They got to know it … and they’ve fallen in love with Colombia.

“The mother would have to establish herself in Colombia. Her permanent residence would have to be here so she couldn’t constantly be travelling. Either rent or buy a flat. Cassie could then move in with her.”

The plan is similar to the scheme that saw Corby serve out the last years of her Bali jail term at her sister Mercedes’ home on the holiday island.

Mr Herran confirmed his legal fees were paid by Australian taxpayers from her April arrest to August 30. He said he was working to get more government funding.

He said he was not receiving payment from the money Sainsbury’s family made from deals with the Nine Network.

Ms Evans and Sainsbury’s sister Khala had asked for more than $1 million to tell their story but the final figure they were paid is understood to fall well short of that.