Cassie Sainsbury ‘worked as a prostitute’, former colleague says she’s a compulsive liar
A FORMER alleged sex worker colleague of Cassie Sainsbury has accused her of being a compulsive liar who once pretended her mother had died from MS.
NSW
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ACCUSED drug smuggler Cassie Sainsbury has completely changed her story about her Colombian arrest by making the explosive claim that she was threatened by a mystery international drugs syndicate to act as a cocaine mule — or her family would be hurt.
It comes amid new shock claims that the 22-year-old was a former sex worker who spent months working in a Western Sydney brothel in the lead up to her ill-fated Colombian trip.
After spending weeks pleading her innocence, Sainsbury has backflipped on her story that she had no idea there was cocaine in her suitcase when she was arrested in Colombia last month.
She is now claiming she was “threatened” into becoming a mule by an international drugs syndicate.
But a former colleague of Sainsbury, who told Nine News she worked with her at brothel Club 220 near Penrith, has accused her of being a compulsive liar who once pretended her mother had died from MS.
The former colleague said she had donated money to Sainsbury to cover her mother’s funeral costs and was horrified to see images of her mother alive and well on television following her daughter’s arrest.
“I just feel Cassandra is not the naive sweet little blonde girl that everybody thinks she is. She’s a very good liar,” the woman said.
The woman said she had been “scammed” into believing that Sainsbury’s mother was dying
According to the woman, Sainsbury led a double-life working as a “fly-in, fly-out” sex worker from August to December last year travelling from Adelaide to Sydney.
According to the colleague, Sainsbury went under the name of “Claudia” and listed herself online as “19 years old … classy, fun and ready to please”.
The listing included a racy picture of Sainsbury wearing red lingerie — although her face had been cropped out of the picture.
A receptionist at Club 220 today said she could not confirm that the South Australian worked there.
Identifying only as “Kathy”, she said the establishment has a high turnover of staff and many of the girls used pseudonyms.
“Working girls come and go, so whatever occurred last year, I don’t know, it’s that simple,” she said.
“They come and might work for a few months and they they move on. We have a very high turnover. Girls don’t make a career out of it.
“So whatever occurred last year, I don’t know. What’s passed is passed.
It can also be revealed today that the former personal trainer has begged Colombian authorities and the Australian Federal Police to put her into a witness protection program.
The revelation was made in an eleventh hour failed bid by her lawyers to stop Channel 7 broadcasting its interview with Sainsbury’s fiance Scott Broadbridge last night.
In a statement of claims lodged with the NSW Supreme Court, it was alleged Sainsbury had “fallen victim to an international drug trafficking syndicate” which “threatened her life and the life of her family if she did not comply with their demands”.
“The drug syndicate threatened the life and the life of her family if she did not comply with their demands. As a result, the Applicant has applied to the Colombian authorities and the Australian Federal Police to be placed into a witness protection program,” the documents claim.
“Any disclosure, publication, transmission, or broadcast of the recordings of the Applicant or any other person, body, organisation, may risk her life and the life of her family.”
Sainsbury was arrested on April 13 at Bogota’s El Dorado Airport, allegedly with 5.8kg of cocaine in her luggage.
According to her family, she had been in Colombia on a working holiday.
The South Australian woman had previously insisted she had no idea she was carrying the drugs, claiming she believed the 18 parcels of cocaine were headphones she’d purchased as gifts from a mysterious English-speaking man she’d met while sightseeing.
Meanwhile, Sainsbury’s fiance Scott Broadbridge maintained his partner was innocent during an interview with Seven’s Sunday Night program. He said she was employed by a mystery couple who paid her $1800 a week to travel the world to work for their cleaning business. But, he added, since Sainsbury’s arrest he had been unable to contact the couple, known as Karen and June Dolshok.
He said Sainsbury was employed by the couple who had bought the cleaning business from Cassie’s uncle Neil Sainsbury — a claim stringently denied by Mr Sainsbury. “There is no truth to that whatsoever, I have never owned a cleaning business,” her uncle said.
“I believe that Cassie has a bit of a history of skipping from one place to the next, when things get a bit tough, and I just don’t honestly believe she was naïve, perhaps she may have had knowledge of what she was doing, complete knowledge.”
Her father also told the program he doubted her story, saying she had planned the trip as early as January this year, saying it was not the impromptu trip organised by the mysterious Dolshok couple.
Yesterday’s injunction application made by Sainsbury’s lawyers was dismissed during an emergency hearing of the NSW Supreme Court.
Justice John Sackar dismissed the application from Sainsbury’s lawyers after the court was closed to the media to hear evidence.
Seven’s lawyers rejected any claims that “it has in any way acted unlawfully during the preparation of an upcoming report regarding Mr Scott Bainbridge’s visit to see his fiance.”
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