Cassie Sainsbury reveals her split with fiance Scott Broadbridge and speaks of violence in her Colombian jail
CONVICTED drug trafficker Cassie Sainsbury says she has split with her fiance and has revealed the paltry amount she was to be paid for attempting to smuggle cocaine.
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CASSIE Sainsbury has revealed she has split with fiance Scott Broadbridge since being sentenced to six years in a Colombian jail for drug trafficking.
In an interview with KIIS FM today the Adelaide-born drug mule also claimed she would have only made around $4000 for smuggling almost 6kg of cocaine out of the South American country after paying for flights and accommodation.
“I actually broke up with Scott back in February. It’s been kept very quiet,” she told the Kyle and Jackie O Show.
“From the moment I got in here the relationship was doomed. I broke up with Scott because it was the best thing for me and the best thing for his future as well.”
Sainsbury was sentenced to six years in jail in November after a Colombian judge accepted a plea deal. However she could serve as little as two-and-a-half years.
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Speaking from jail in Bogota, Sainsbury said her drug smuggling attempt would not have made her rich.
“What I was told was, the $10,000 (she was told she would be paid), they would take out my flights, my accommodation, I would be paid what was left over,’ she said.
“But I never got paid anything.”
Sainsbury also claimed she had been the victim of violence and discrimination behind bars.
The 22-year-old said she has had trouble with the 15 other inmates she shares a ‘patio’ with at the El Buen Pastor prison since being arrested at Bogota airport.
“Everyone looks at white people as ‘gringos’ ... there is a lot of discrimination. Not knowing Spanish, everything just piled on and people took advantage,” she said.
REVEALED: The Colombia you don’t see in the news
Sainsbury claimed she had become an unofficial peacekeeper in the prison and in trying to stop a number of fights had been hit in the face by a 70-year-old inmate.
“After that (being hit) I thought ‘nope I’m not getting involved with this old lady anymore’, she was super strong for her age,” Sainbury said.
“I keep my distance from the people I know are trying to make trouble, I’m friendly with everyone, and that’s it.”
She also issued a warning for fellow young Australians travelling abroad.
“Really, really analyse the people you think you can trust. You might think you can trust them but they can be a complete different person,” Sainsbury said.
REVEALED: Australia’s secret war on cocaine
PEOPLE ‘DON’T KNOW THE REAL CASSIE’
Sainsbury’s mother Lisa Evans also spoke to KIIS FM and said she was pleasantly surprised at the conditions her daughter was incarcerated in.
“I had no idea what I was expecting when I walked in. I expected Patio 7 to be worse than it is,” she said.
“But it’s like, and I say this but don’t take it as lightly as it sounds, it’s like a dormitory.”
Evans also said her daughter wasn’t a bad person and had just “fallen into the wrong crowd”.
REVEALED: How prison is making Cassie sick
“She is a fun loving, animal loving, hard working girl. She owned her own business, okay it failed, but she did have a go.
“She’s determined to do the right thing, she’s a good girl, never been in trouble with the law ever in her life.
“I want people to understand that what people know about Cassie is only from a year ago onwards. They don’t know Cassie before that, the beautiful, fun loving girl who cares about her family, friends and animals.
“She worked for the Country Fire Service (CFS) when we had the fires over here (in Adelaide).
“She just fell into the wrong crowd, it can happen to anybody.
“This proves without a doubt that it can happen to anybody. I’d like to say to all the kids out there who think it’s a quick buck, it doesn’t work that way.”
CASSIE SAINSBURY WAS A ‘VICTIM’
Sainsbury had faced up to 30 years in Bogota’s El Buen Pastor prison for trying to smuggle almost 6kg of cocaine on April 12 last year.
Sainsbury has offered several versions of how she came to be carrying the drugs, but a judge accepted her claim she had been threatened into committing 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.
RELATED: Cocaine Cassie wants taxpayer help
Sainsbury’s lawyer Orlando Herran spoke to media shortly after the hearing ended and because the court was closed to media, his is the only available version of events.
He said Sainsbury was “lucky” to receive such a short sentence for a “large” amount of drugs, which he said was due to the fact the judge had accepted she was a “victim” and a “small fish”.
“The judge manifestly felt that people who undergo this process are victims,” Mr Herran said in Spanish outside court. “Victims of deceit, victims of their own socio-economic conditions and victims of ignorance regarding Colombian law.”
“Her story should serve as a warning, an example to other people considering whether to do these things,” he said.
REVEALED: On the frontline in Colombia’s war on drugs
“The Colombian judicial system is well structured and it takes into account people’s particular circumstances. The fact that she was threatened was an important consideration in the plea deal.”
Mr Herran said Sainsbury was threatened to respect the deal she had made to arrive at the airport with the drugs.
“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.”
He said she could have received an even shorter sentence if she had asked police for help, and that the judge had “sanctioned” her for not doing so.
“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,” he said.
Mr Herran said Sainsbury was also ordered to pay a fine of almost $US90,000 ($130,000) – equal to 72 months of the Colombian minimum wage - which he was attempting to have reduced because she couldn’t pay it.
This sentence takes into account the seven months Sainsbury has already served, so she could return to Australia by April 2020.
Herran said the sentence could also be commuted into home-based parole in Colombia. In order for this to happen she would need to establish a base in Bogota.
In the Colombian jail system good behaviour could be termed as teaching English classes such as Sainsbury has been doing in the jail.
Sainsbury was supported in court by her mother, Lisa Evans.
She was met by a huge media pack awaiting her arrival.
Originally published as Cassie Sainsbury reveals her split with fiance Scott Broadbridge and speaks of violence in her Colombian jail
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