Original subtitles

He spoke about bringing something back from Peru.

I had to collect somebody to witness.

I never thought that Sarah could hurt me at all.

I totally wrecked Simon's life.

Please understand that this has nothing to do with me.

People come to Milton Keynes and they think, New City, it looks very nice on

television and everything.

But I don't think it's the answer to everybody's problems.

I've lived in Milton Keynes since I was three years old.

Growing up, I grew up with a middle -class family.

My parents were very strict.

I was the black sheep of the family and got the blame for everything.

A few years ago...

They found a job as a sales manager in a hotel.

I just worked really hard.

But the money wasn't enough, and I resigned.

And after that, I had too much time on my hands, and I just, everything

spiralled out of control, really.

Drinking a lot, taking drugs.

Partying.

A big group of friends.

I was indexed by a borrower money from this loan shark.

It got ridiculous, the amount of money that he wanted and the pressure that he

was putting on me.

Then I kept getting the phone calls, guys were coming for the payments I

have. And there was that range of payments, like, I want £300 by Friday.

He was coming round to my house at all times.

Some of the money I'd paid back, I believed that I'd never be able to pay

it back.

So I'd let him into my house.

I just didn't like this person having this power over me.

There's a way we can end all of this.

One of the ways that you mentioned of paying off the debt was bringing

back from Peru.

It'd be easy.

Yeah, easy, nothing is easy.

What was it?

Yeah, it was drugs.

Drugs from Peru.

Not so much.

Maybe one or two kilos.

I asked him a lot of questions.

What about the dogs at the airport?

They cover it so the dogs can't smell it.

What about the extra machines that the luggage goes through? It's going to be

picked up.

No, it will be put in a suitcase so even you won't see it.

You need to have confidence and trust me in this.

I thought, well, I didn't have any choice.

I said, OK, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it.

And then he said... You want somebody to go with you.

It looks better than a person travelling on their own.

This is where I feel really horrible talking, because I had to select

to go with me.

Met her out in the bar, got chatting. She was interested in football and

drinking.

When she was friendly with you, you felt that you were her best friend in the

world.

She livened my life up in Mill and Keens, which was, to be honest, fairly

before that, really.

The other reason I chose Simon, apart from him having a clean record and a

regular job, he looked totally innocent.

He looked... It's going to sound terrible. He looked almost a bit stupid,

know, like... Well, he just didn't look... He didn't look like a criminal.

He used to run a boy scout group.

Have you been to Peru?

No.

I was at her house watching the football.

And she said... Would you like to go to Peru?

Yeah, I wouldn't.

Would you like to go to Peru with me?

I said, you know, are you sure about this?

How are we going to afford it?

It's OK, I've got some money my grandparents left me. It's all sorted.

you in Peru.

We're fabulous.

I lied to him.

Yeah, I lied to him.

When I said the holiday was ten days, you just jumped for joy.

Yeah.

Definitely, I'd love to.

Really?

Get some cheap flights in the new year, and then we could go. And I was,

yeah, delighted to.

Just after Christmas, I decided, no, I can't do it. My phone beeps were up, and

I told them, you're never going to believe this, I've lost my passport.

I can't find it anywhere.

He just said, don't worry about it, I've filled it out.

It turned up with a passport of another girl.

And when I opened it, well, she looked absolutely nothing like me.

She was 19 on the picture.

The only thing we had in common was my hair was short because I'd had it cut.

And I'm looking at the passport thinking, well, this isn't going to

I didn't have any idea that I wouldn't be going back home in ten days.

10 weeks or 10 months.

Thank you.

When we got to the airport, I had no problems. I went through all the

controls in Gatwick, through Madrid, no problems whatsoever.

Entered Lima, no problems at all.

It was almost surreal.

I didn't see Farrah's passport because she kept hold of it and did the checking

and everything.

And then I became more confident. I thought, well, if I can get her on a

passport that looks like a child, then it's going to be a walk in the park.

My luggage didn't arrive, so all I had was my carry -on knapsack and the

I was wearing.

Mine, unfortunately, was there.

Poor Simon's wasn't there.

Simon survived on whatever he had in his rucksack.

It was a complete culture shock to me. The heat, it was really hot and it just

was very different to what I was used to.

It just goes up in the mountains.

It's very beautiful. Lots of different kinds of buildings and cobbled streets.

Lots of people in different dress. Much more exotic.

Completely not something you'd see every day in Milton Keynes.

I was given a cell phone to bring with me, but I had to buy a new SIM card.

I had to call Victor, the loan shark, that sent me to say, yeah, I've arrived,

where I'm staying.

And then he just told me that on Friday at 5 o 'clock, I needed to be in my

hotel room. I needed to be on my own.

The problem that entered my head is, how am I going to get Simon away from the

hotel so I can do it on my own?

The day before we went to the archaeological site in Machu Picchu, as

walking around Cusco in the main square, there's a lot of places that offer

massages, manicures, pedicures and so forth.

And I said to Simon, when we get back to Machu Picchu, my feet will be killing

me. Sarah said to me, I think I'll treat myself after we go to Machu Picchu.

Now, looking back on it, I've realised that as part of our plans, I'll be kept

away from what was going to happen.

Throughout the whole time I was with Simon, it never crossed my mind to speak

Simon about the reason I'd actually come here.

I never thought that Sarah could hurt me at all.

We took the train up.

towards Machu Picchu. Back then I was really excited to actually be going

at last.

We had a really nice day in Machu Picchu.

How is it up there?

It's just amazing that something's been built that long ago, you know, so high

up in the middle of a lot of mountains.

Got to the actual summit, it just took my breath away.

It's just like, wow, this is amazing.

Day of the transaction.

I'd already spoken to Simon about having a massage, pedicure, manicure, etc.

And then I said, Simon, right, I'm off to have all my treatments done.

So she said, well, we'll meet back at the hotel bar about six o 'clock.

And so that's what I did.

Simon didn't suspect a thing at all.

At the pub, there's a balcony, and I just had a drink, sitting at the table,

just relaxing and just...

enjoying sort of my last afternoon in very pleasant surroundings.

I was in my room, I got the phone call to say, OK, the people are here, and

I got a knock at the door.

I was thinking about how good Matapichu was and how much I enjoyed it.

Hola. The people that knocked at the bedroom door were a couple. Hola.

Similar age, mid -forties, I would say.

The woman looked like she had dressed specially to go into the hotel.

Just something I could tell about her. He looked quite comfortable in his

clothes.

He was the only one that came into my room and he opened both of his suitcases

on the bed.

He was saying, check it, but I'm not professional. I'm like, what do you want

check? So I'm like banging the compartments and looking.

And I think I even smelt the suitcase. I don't know what I thought I was going

to smell.

And asked me to lift it up.

So we still closed it up, and I lifted the suitcases.

OK. Yeah, it felt a little bit heavy, but not overly heavy.

And I thought, as long as I'm under my 20 kilos, when I go through, there's

going to be no questions asked.

The guy was really calm, left me the suitcases, and he left my room.

That night, I didn't sleep that well, to be honest.

Thoughts were running through my head about what's going to happen at the

airport.

And the next morning when I got up, I took maybe five, I think, Valium to keep

me calm.

When I got to Cusco airport, everything was very relaxed. It was very early in

the morning. There was no police presence. There was no x -ray machines,

dogs, no nothing.

I remember the check -in girl was quite chatty.

She said, can you put your case on the weight machine?

So I'm generally putting one on and then the other one.

You're looking at the weight machine.

We've got our boarding passes.

And the child fell.

I've no longer got the goods on me. They're gone.

I don't think I was even looking over my shoulder.

I was fine.

I didn't realise that I was heading for disaster.

When we finally arrived in Lima and were waiting for the luggage, then I must

admit I started to feel a little bit nervous.

When the cases came round, I'd seen them, but I was a bit... I picked it up,

was looking around to see if anyone was watching, and then I thought, no, this

is fine, and I just picked up the cases.

It was the police presence in Lima

It freaked me out.

Then I started to feel really uncomfortable with having the suitcases.

When I checked in, I didn't want Simon to be with me, for obvious reasons.

When we arrived at the international departures, Simon still hadn't got his

luggage from Britain. He'd still got his one and only rucksack.

So I said to him to go up to the office.

the administration office and find out if they're sending it to his home

because it's the last chance we're going to get. It could be still sitting in

Lima.

She was like, right, you go off and do that.

I'm going to try and book it, which struck me as a bit odd. I said, why not

and we're both booking together?

Once Simon had gone up to the administration offices and saw that he

lugging, I thought about taking the suitcases to the bathroom and just

them.

Then I thought, what am I going to do when I get back to England?

There's a lot of stuff in there for a lot of money.

So I just carried on checking.

I would push the trolley up to where the checking was, but I didn't really want

to check in yet. I was more trying to suss out what was happening because I

could see a lot of police there.

And I was really nervous then.

I was looking on the board.

As I was looking, a woman approached me.

Can you give me your passport?

And I was, my throat started to go dry then. I said, sure.

And I gave it to her. And she said, oh, and you look dumb in this picture.

And I, oh.

I said, yeah, it was taken ten years ago.

And then she sort of ushered me, so it was like she was almost bullying me to

through. Because I didn't have to check in. I had hours to check in.

But I had the sign, and I thought, I have to do this now.

Put your case here, please.

And there was an x -ray machine at the front.

And I was trying not to look at them. I could feel myself getting hot.

I didn't know where to look, and I could feel myself shaking inside.

They saw the drugs in the suitcase.

Would I run?

Would I say, it's not my suitcase?

What would I do? What would I do?

I saw him pull it back, and I'm thinking, oh, no.

Oh, my God.

And then he pulled it through again, and I could see them, like, pointing to

something in the case, and then I saw myself sweating, and I was thinking, oh,

my God, oh, my God.

So I thought, what can I do? I can either run, but where am I going to run?

Where am I going to run?

So I just thought I'm going to ride this out.

OK.

You're fine.

Just go and check in.

I was on an adrenaline, but then I was feeling high.

I got to the office and the person there looked through and said, no, your

luggage hasn't arrived.

And they asked me to write out the contents of my luggage.

As I'm checking in, I can see my luggage plan and check -in counter.

I've checked myself in.

And as I've got my boarding pass... Can you come this way, please?

I thought, what do I do? Do I run? I just didn't know what to do. I was

in the moment.

And I said, why? What's the problem?

There is no problem. Can you just come this way, please?

Is it okay?

The policeman asked me to step over there and get away in my shoes.

I couldn't run.

After that, I thought, well, why didn't you run, Sarah? Why didn't you just run

out the door and get in a taxi?

I didn't.

I didn't know anything. I just followed him as if I didn't understand what was

happening. As if I was innocent.

The case was over towards where I

was standing and asked me to open them.

I put my stuff out.

I was so scared, I couldn't do anything.

And then the man got a big needle and he just stabbed an area

at the base of the case.

It had a speck of white on the end.

What did he do?

I didn't know what to do. I didn't cry, I didn't scream.

And I just thought...

I sat down on the stairs and got to the booking section and I had a look around

and I couldn't see Sarah anywhere.

When they marched me into the police office and sat me down, I thought my

had ended.

When the tickets were booked, it was booked as a party of two.

So my name with his name.

I couldn't see Sarah, so I thought, well, I'll head towards the check -in

As I was checking in, a gentleman tapped me on the shoulder.

And he started speaking to me in Spanish.

Oh, like, what?

No,

he just started saying, come with me, come with me. And I was, why, why? And

then he sort of said, I've never ever been stopped by

the police before. So suddenly it was, what's happened with Sarah?

The door opened and Simon came

in.

Then I was like, what?

Oh, what's happening here?

Sarah didn't really look at me, didn't really say anything or try and say

anything.

My mind was starting to race, thinking of all the different possibilities, but

still thinking, no, this has got to be a mistake.

was holding up one of my clothes and trying it on and saying, oh, this is

And I was saying, it's not yours.

Put the stuff down, it's not yours.

When I saw there was a long

blonde boy in the luggage, I just couldn't understand it or something.

What have you bought that for? It just doesn't make any sense to me. It's just

ridiculous.

When they searched my hand luggage, they found my passport.

I don't know.

Whose passport is this?

It's my passport, so that if anything happened, I had to disguise.

I could put my wig on, I've got my other passport, and if necessary, I can go to

the embassy or I can do something. I haven't quite planned what, but that's

I've my other passport.

They ripped the case open and pulled out three

black packets.

While they were doing this, they were filming it all.

I don't know what to do, so I just sat there for just... Staring at them,

thinking, I don't believe this. I don't believe this.

It's positive for drugs.

Both bags are not mine.

Please understand that this has nothing to do with me. Please.

You've got to understand, it isn't anything to do with me.

And they then cut open the packets

and emptied the contents

into the bag and it was flying everywhere, just piles and piles of it.

When they put it on the scales, it weighed 9 .89 kilos.

I remember them standing, me and Simon up, making them stand behind the table.

And they poured all the cocaine in front of us, like it's some slideshow.

What about that dress?

Why are you here, Simon?

OK, holiday.

Holiday? Yeah.

Do you know something about the drugs?

Mine was just turning over.

My stomach was churning and I sort of just felt sick and confused.

I wanted to tip the table over. I was so angry because it...

Like, wanted to point at the drug and say, yeah, it's mine.

I was just getting more and more irate and angry.

Like, with the joke, with the wig, with my skirt, when she started putting my

clothes on.

He tried to sedate me because I was getting hysterical.

There

was

no way out. There was no way out whatsoever.

It happened.

Now I have to live this nightmare.

Over and over again, they kept saying, you must be boyfriend and girlfriend.

Is your friend, is your wife?

Friend. Is your friend, only your friend?

Yeah. You spent ten days in a hotel room with Sarah.

You must have known what she was doing.

I don't know.

I didn't know.

How you don't know?

I went, she said she was going to get some new bags. I went.

And I went to the bar.

They just really didn't want to believe me.

You are lying.

I'm a girl. You are lying. I don't believe you.

And they were saying, saying, oh, you'll get 18 to 25 years.

And I was just like, 18 to 25 years just for going on holiday with someone.

I don't believe you.

My nightmare began at 7 o 'clock the next morning.

I opened my eyes and I realised it wasn't a dream, you know.

But I finally slept and I woke up.

That was when it really hit me that this is real.

I didn't want to come out of the room.

I was crying.

I hadn't seen Simon, I hadn't seen anybody. I didn't want to come out.

They kept telling me to come out and eat.

I didn't want to come out, I didn't want to see anybody.

For the first

day, but we didn't really speak at all. We just sort of avoided each

other.

Sarah sounds open, so I came to see how she was because she'd been quite upset.

I said, look, I'm sorry that I brought you.

I know it looks like I've used you, and technically I have used you, but I

haven't used you as in being evil, because I thought I had everything

I was thinking along English law, and something would have been covered. They

might have questioned them, but... They had nothing on him, so he would have

been got free.

I told him I'd chosen him because he's very submissive. He's not going to get

the way of anything.

And it was a safe option.

I would have liked to have given her a smack.

But I'm not the sort of person to do that.

I'm the sort of person who goes off on my own. If I've got a problem, I don't

know if I'm upset.

I sat in the cell and I hit the walls and I swore.

And I was just scared.

I was so angry.

Why wasn't I more?

It's suspicious.

More aggressive and more argumentative about it.

Just thinking over and over. Why do I say yes or go and word over?

I phoned home.

I was terrified.

Tears were in my eyes.

The first time I spoke to my mum was to say, I'm in Peru, I'm in prison, and

I'm in a lot of trouble.

Other than that, I don't know what's happening.

She started crying and said, what have you done?

What have you done?

What are we going to do? What's going to happen?

And was crying and upset.

And I didn't have anything to say. I had no answers, which was

truly, it was the worst complication I've had in my life.

OK, after the 15 days, the police have got all the details.

They go through and they get both of our statements and they go, look, he didn't

have anything on him.

He didn't know anything about it.

They'll go, OK, I'm very sorry, we'll let you go.

Or, well, I didn't even mind if they didn't say sorry, they just said, OK,

can go.

So on the 15th day when we left the detention centre, Simon was a little bit

happy and people were, bye, bye.

I had no idea of how it was going to come.

We were put in the police car, handcuffed, and then we went to the

where I assumed that Simon would get his release.

But nobody ever explained where we were going or why we were going anywhere.

I just got put back in jail.

I was put in a cell on the left and Simon was put all through a door.

It was disgusting. It smelled of urine.

15, 20 men in there, all sort of scars and cut up and tattoos.

There was one guy on the floor and they kept kicking him and beating him

and that was apparently because he was a paedophile.

I looked out of the window.

They used to bring all the men in and they used to strip them.

And they made them stand up against the wall with their hands against the wall

and their legs apart.

They got us all out of the cells. There was about 20 of us.

Just told to face the wall. I was quite worried because obviously not

understanding Spanish, so I'm just doing what everyone else is doing.

And I don't know why, but the bloke standing next to me, for some reason, I

don't know if he said something or he did something.

But the guard started hitting him with a baton.

And I was just standing there thinking, oh, my God, I hope I've not done

anything wrong. I hope he's not going to hit me.

We didn't have a clue what was going on, because I kept thinking, when are we

going to be appearing in this court where the judge is going to say, you can

home, Simon?

I'm not exactly sure why, but then we were taken to, first of all, to a

centre where we were sort of stripped.

And we had to have our fingerprints taken.

We had to give a urine sample.

They checked my teeth.

Just kept going on and on and on.

They just took the picture of me with my numbers, but I was nervous and I tilted

the numbers and all the numbers fell out.

And that was the last time I saw Sarah.

After all the processing on the Monday afternoon, I was finally taken to Santa

Monica, which is a women's minimum security prison in Lima.

Fairly easy going.

I'd heard some horrendous stories about men's jails and I didn't know what was

happening to Simon. I had no contact with him.

led down and it was just noise everywhere.

We were waiting outside the gate

and the crowd of people shouting in English.

Dutch folk came out and took me in.

I didn't know what was going to happen.

The prison I ended up in was very overcrowded. There was actually beds for

people.

And at the time I arrived, there was 230 people in there.

No one in there was going to help you.

So it was either stand up for yourself or...

They were going to rip me to pieces, really.

They were lots of hyenas, vultures.

They'd take every last thing from you.

One of the showers was in the toilet, and...

If you're unfortunate enough to have to use the toilet while someone was having

a shower, then, oh, that was it, that was your view whilst you were using it.

And you got covered in that shower water.

Sarah's not only destroyed my life, but she's also destroyed my faith in

humanity.

Santa Monica, it's not a violent place. I didn't feel threatened at all. There

was no gangs.

Everybody's very placid. It's just like a children's playground.

Over the months, we started getting very worried.

What Sarah's talking about is what people are talking about.

If you say that it didn't have something to do with it, or it was always right

there, then you'll be better off.

A lot of the girls said it'd be better if Simon said that he knows about the

drug, because then my sentence would be lower, because what they do is they'll

split 9 .9 kilos, so you've got four and a half each.

It's easy, it's quick, it's fast.

Sarah had proven that she could betray me once, and so obviously they were

concerned that she could do it again.

Three weeks and months later, I was called for de la gente, which is when I

to give my declaration to the judge.

I have accepted full responsibility for the drugs.

They were mine. I knew that I was coming through for drugs.

I'm sorry, United. I'm sorry for your country.

Simon knew nothing. He's totally innocent.

It was about two or three weeks before I found out that Sarah had kept the word,

had took the blame and said I was innocent.

They kept me in prison for ten months and I hadn't done a thing.

I always had a bit of hope, thinking, well, at least I am going to be able to

home.

And I think that was a nightmare,

but that's an end to it.

They've taken my passport, so I've got no identification.

I'm in a legal limbo.

Can't leave the country.

I'm stuck.

Hi, I'm in.

This is my room.

This is my bed.

Bathroom.

Television. I've put them watching.

I spend my days waiting, watching the television and reading.

That's about it. That's my life.

I think he'll forgive me for not making excuses or what I did to him was wrong.

But he knows that I didn't mean it.

I've messed up my whole life.

Made the worst decision of my life.

And I'm living the nightmare right now.