A drugs smuggler who has spent eight years in Thailand’s infamous ‘Bangkok Hilton’ prison has been allowed home to serve the rest of his sentence in Britain. Michael Connell, 27, from Bury, was sentenced to 99 years in prison after trying to smuggle thousands of ecstasy tablets though Bangkok airport. His sentence was reduced to 30 years and then to 20 years on appeal, and since then he has been locked up in the Bang Kwang Prison, where up to 20 inmates share a small concrete cell.
Now he has been allowed to return to Britain, and is being held in a London jail. He has 12 years to serve but will be eligible for parole in six years. His family say they are delighted – but they want the rest of his sentence to be scrapped. They say their son, who has learning difficulties, was under pressure to pay off a loan when, aged just 19, he tried to smuggle 3,400 ecstasy tablets into Thailand from a flight out of Manchester. The drugs were picked up by an X-ray machine after being hidden in tubs of body lotion in his luggage.
His dad Derek, 56, told the BBC’s Inside Out North West: “Michael committed a crime, he never denied it and he held his hands up. He said he was stupid, he wishes he’d never done it and he’s getting on with it and I think the sentence he has done is long enough. He’s done eight years in what is probably the worst prison in the world. I am going to do whatever I can to get his sentence reduced, or quashed, if I can and get him out.”
Michael was arrested at Bangkok Airport (Don Muang) on 10th November 2003. He was 19 years old. He was sentenced the following year on 23rd March 2004 to 99 years. Michael was initially held at Klong Prem but was moved to Bang Kwang after his sentence. Michael was featured in the BBC documentary “The Real Bangkok Hilton”. He is currently being held at Wandsworth prison in south-west London and his father is expecting him to be transferred to Whitemore in Cambridgeshire.
Sources: Manchester Evening News and BBC
The punishment does not fit the crime!!! This is inhumane
Hi Michael,
I saw you on our TV and almost cried for you, the evil horror and squalor of those prisons I believe can be a nightmare. I read a book which haunted me for weeks called DAMAGE DONE also of a similar case.
A week ago an Austrian got arrested for drugs and I
am praying for this young man that he also manages to serve his sentance in his own country. I saw on
the news of an South African African girl who also
got caught with drugs in her dread locks, she looked
so young and of course she committed a crime and got
caught. I know drugs are very tempting as the money is so lucrative but the risk and damage that is done
to the end user is irrepairable, so please warm all
the readers and if something you can do is to campaign that drugs be avoided.
Thanks and God bless until you get out.
Thanks Jean for your comment. Surprisingly, not all Westerners are happy about being transferred back to their home country. Some I spoke to said that they were better off in Thai prisons. At least there they were left alone to wander around the grounds during the day and that the food in Thai prisons was a lot better.
lsaw michael on tv in big trouble in thailand l go over there once a year for a holiday and to see my son who lives out there well lm just writeing to say bet must have been very hard for you been just 19 and haveing to ajust to the thai way of living l know lve read some storys and some dont get out a live but lm glad you are home take care marie xx
Sorry if I am missing the point here!This guy was not knocking on doors for the Red Cross was he?
The drug industry has a law of averages and the mules have a reasonably high percentage of always getting caught.Michael has what he deserves since we all know in our society the damage drugs cause to family’s and the wretched souls using them.
Fortunately he has been stopped as many are in Asian country’s and serves a purpose of education to any wood be dumb person thinking of a career as a drug mule.