Shattered: Rachel Dougall pictured back at home in Brighton after spending a year in Bali's most notorious prison
Cowering on a wafer-thin floor mat in
an Indonesian prison, Rachel Dougall could do little but cover her face
with her hands as a six-foot woman prisoner viciously punched and
kicked her.
The
convent school-educated mother-of-one was only days into a year-long
sentence connected to a £1.6 million cocaine smuggling ring when she
was attacked by one of the 14 inmates crammed into her tiny cell.
It
was the first of several savage beatings she endured in Bali’s
notorious and squalid Kerobokan Prison, nicknamed ‘Hotel K’, before
being released in May this year.
Speaking
publicly for the first time since she was deported back to Britain,
Dougall, 40, reveals that she suffered a nervous breakdown after being
locked up with drug addicts, HIV-positive inmates and sexually
aggressive lesbians. She developed scabies and says she nearly died of
pneumonia, spending a week in hospital.
It
may be hard to sympathise with a woman who was accused of trying to
smuggle just over 10lbs of cocaine from Bangkok to Bali – albeit that
her sentence was for the minor charge of failing to report a crime.
It’s
also true she has a vested interest in speaking out against alleged
accomplice Lindsay Sandiford – a 57-year-old Gloucestershire grandmother
sentenced to death for smuggling – who Dougall insists was the
mastermind behind the plot.
But
this interview marks a new twist in a case that has left the ageing
housewife on death row – and the British judiciary powerless to help.
Three leading judges expressed ‘great sympathy’ with Sandiford but ruled
that the Government was not acting unlawfully in refusing to pay for
her appeal against the death penalty.
Police
originally believed that Dougall’s childhood sweetheart Julian Ponder, a
44-year-old former antiques restorer, was the brains behind the British
drug syndicate that became known as the ‘Gang of Four’.
But
the case collapsed after Dougall, Ponder and the final member of the
group, Paul Beales, claimed they had been set up by Sandiford.
‘She’s
not the innocent she would like people to believe,’ Dougall says.
‘Everyone thinks she’s this poor naive granny, but she’s not. She
doesn’t deserve any sympathy; I’ve been told by many people in Bali and
Britain that she’s been bringing drugs into the country for 25 years.’
Sandiford
gave evidence against the others after being caught at Bali’s airport
with a suitcase full of cocaine on May 19 last year.
Ponder,
who became known as the ‘King of Bali’ for his imperious manner, is
currently serving six years for possession of three quarters of an ounce
of cocaine, which was found in the luxury villa he shared with Dougall.
Beales, 41, was sentenced to four years for possession.
Rachel Dougall, pictured left in holding cell as
she waited to be sentenced in Bali last year, describes her alleged
accomplice, 57-year-old grandmother, Lindsay Sandiford, pictured right,
as pure evil
Poor conditions: Kerobakan Prison in Bali, where Ms Dougall was held, has frequent floods
Dougall insists she pleaded guilty to
failing to report a drug-connected crime only because the authorities
had promised she would not serve a prison sentence.
‘I
was totally innocent, but they said that if I co-operated I would be
free to stay with my daughter Kitty, who was six at the time,’ she says.
‘But they lied and caged me up like an animal.’
She
also criticises the hypocrisy of a country that will put people to
death by firing squad for using or selling drugs, yet allows substances
such as crystal meth and crack cocaine to be freely used inside the
prison system.
‘Most
of the women were on drugs virtually every day. If you had money the
guards would get you anything you wanted. Inmates in the men’s prison
next door even paid prostitutes for overnight visits.’
Now
reunited with Kitty in Brighton, where she grew up, Dougall says her
life has been shattered and even claims that she lives in fear after
receiving death threats from the woman known as the ‘Bali Granny’.
Horror: Rachel Dougall says this picture was
taken of her in Kerobakan Prison, Bali, after bullying inmates forcibly
dressed her up
This image is strikingly at odds with
the popular one of a vulnerable Sandiford weeping as she knits in jail,
and Rachel adds, ‘That woman is pure evil. Her story about being
coerced is rubbish. She wants the public to think she did it out of fear
for her children’s lives, but that’s a total lie.
‘She’s
not some tragic pawn doing it under duress. She blames me for her
downfall and says she will have me killed. I’ve been told my life and my
child’s life are at risk.’
The
youngest of seven children, Dougall always wanted to settle down in
Asia – even though she hates the food. It was a dream she would share
with Ponder, whom she first met as an impressionable 16-year-old
schoolgirl when he visited friends in Brighton.
He
frequently came to the seaside town because his mother, a retired
antiques dealer, was living in nearby Lewes. Twelve years ago, Dougall
moved to be with him in London, where they rented homes in fashionable
areas in Chelsea. Ponder, she says, made a good living selling expensive
watches and as a property developer.
They travelled often and lived in
India for a while. But it was Bali that captivated them. After Kitty was
born, Dougall decided she wanted her daughter to grow up there.
‘It
was my idea to move there two-and-a-half years ago,’ she says. ‘It was
the beginning of a dream. We had a three-bedroom villa with a large
swimming pool and marble floors. Life was wonderful and it was a great
place for a child.’
But
life on the tropical paradise island turned sour on May 25 last year,
Kitty’s sixth birthday. ‘We were preparing for a party the following day
with a friend who had come over to help out. I decided to go to Echo
Beach to get some food from Sticky Fingers, but as I headed for my car, I
was suddenly surrounded by about 12 Indonesian police officers
screaming at me.
Caught: Sandiford gave evidence against the
others after being caught, pictured, at Bali¿s airport with a suitcase
full of cocaine on May 19 last year
Suspects: Ms Dougall pictured with her childhood
sweetheart and fellow suspect Julian Ponder who was originally believed
by police to be the brains behind the drug syndicate
‘It
was so scary. I didn’t realise that Julian had been held elsewhere or
that the whole thing had begun with Sandiford being stopped at the
airport with a suitcase full of drugs. She apparently implicated me and
Julian, who had been her friend for 20 years, as part of some gang.’
Dougall
says she had only met Sandiford a few times and once invited her to
stay in the villa for a week. ‘I didn’t really know her and would never
have broken the law,’ she insists. ‘If I had had any inkling that she
was involved in drugs I would never have let her near my home and my
child. My daughter is everything to me.’
Implicated: Rachel's partner Julian Ponder pictured in custody in Bali a year ago
Dougall was bundled into her house
and handcuffed to a chair while a terrified Kitty cried hysterically.
She says she went white with shock when police searching the child’s
bedroom discovered a cigarette box containing cocaine.
‘They
said it was Julian’s, but I had not seen it before. I was shocked and
very angry to think that anyone could have been stupid enough to put
something potentially lethal in my child’s room.’
She
knew she was in serious trouble. ‘Drugs in Bali are such a big thing.
You just don’t do it. There is a big sign as you walk through the
airport warning that the penalty is death. I would never dream of doing
drugs, let alone be involved.’
Just before midnight they brought
Ponder to the villa and searched the house again. Another box containing
cocaine was found in the couple’s bedroom, stashed inside a handbag
Dougall had not used in months. She believes the police planted it.
‘I
have never seen Julian do cocaine, so I did not believe it was his. I
smoke cigarettes but I had never seen those boxes before. They were never even dusted for fingerprints.’
Held
in a bug-infested 18ft by 12ft police cell with more than a dozen other
women, including Sandiford, Dougall was desperate not to be separated
from her child and agreed to co-operate with the police. Conditions were
harsh. The toilet was a hole in the ground and they shared one sink, in
which they washed. ‘When it rained the sewage would overflow into the
area and the smell was unbearable,’ Dougall says. ‘Invariably, I was
caught short when the worst of the effluence was coming through.’
Dougall says she was equally
terrified of Sandiford and of facing a firing squad. ‘That woman
threatened to have me killed and I was seriously intimidated by her
size. She has got a foul mouth and can be very aggressive.
Low point: Dougall, pictured in her cell, said she contemplated suicide but thoughts of her daughter Kitty kept her going
Suspect: Paul Beales, right, was also arrested and later sentenced to four years in prison for possession
‘I
didn’t eat or sleep for a week,’ she recalls. ‘I was angry at Julian
because I only got involved with Sandiford because of him, so we broke
up.
‘I think she set us up as fall guys
because they promised her some kind of deal to avoid the death penalty.
She was probably lied to as much as I was. But in her case she deserves
everything she gets.’
Dougall
was so shocked by her one-year sentence that she collapsed and had to
be held up by two woman guards. Her daughter visited her in prison
‘about half a dozen times, but it was heart-wrenching for us both. She
couldn’t understand why I wasn’t coming home and she had to be dragged
away screaming. Afterwards I had to be sedated because I was so
agitated. In the end I told my parents to take her back to Britain.’
She was then kept in the dark about her mother’s whereabouts until she returned to the UK.
Life
in the notorious Hotel K was so appalling that Dougall contemplated
suicide. ‘I got beaten up a few times because the press called me the
“Queen of Bali”. I would cover up my face and take the beatings as they
punched and kicked me.
Ordeal: Dougall, pictured behind bars in Bali,
says she was locked up with drug addicts, HIV-positive inmates and
sexually aggressive lesbians
Dougall's former partner Ponder, pictured leaving his Bali cell, is serving six years for drugs possession
She
says, ‘The first occasion was by some South African who was addicted to
crystal meth and beat the hell out of me one night. Sandiford would
scream abuse and threats whenever our paths crossed – which I tried to
ensure wasn’t very often.
‘I
thought about killing myself many times, but what kept me going was my
lovely daughter. I didn’t want to leave her without a mother. Knowing
she was waiting at the end of my year gave me the strength.’
Drug use was rife. ‘It’s lawless.
Some of my cellmates were addicts and would get strung out. They tried
to force me to do crack and meth, but I resisted, even when they pushed
the crack pipe into my face.’
Dougall’s
physical condition continued to deteriorate. Her weight fell from about
9 st 4 lb to 7 st 1 lb and her once-thick auburn hair fell out in
clumps.
‘I kept getting ill
– I nearly died after collapsing with pneumonia in February this year.
The British Embassy didn’t want to know. They refused to pay for my
treatment.’
She also claims an aggressive lesbian who ‘ran’ the block made frequent sexual advances.
‘Because
I rebuffed her, she would force me to dress up in leather or other
fancy clothes and dance like a stripper while the other women laughed
and pushed me around. I was humiliated.’
Dougall,
one of six white women in a prison population of 286, says sexual
assaults were commonplace and that she fought off several attempts by
both the male guards and some inmates: ‘I did what I had to do in order
to stay alive.’
She
insists that, although she is no longer involved with Julian, she has no
doubt of his innocence. ‘I’ve racked my brains and tried to remember if
there were signs that I missed, but I don’t think so. I just cannot
believe he would be stupid enough to put our child’s future at risk in
such a way.
‘His crime
was knowing a woman who is evil. And I suppose if I’m truthful I don’t
rule out the possibility that we might get back together in the future.
‘But
who knows? I’m gutted that my dream of living in paradise ended so
tragically. I love Bali, but I’ll never set foot there again.’
dailymail.co.uk
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