A drained and emotional Cassie Sainsbury has spoken of her excruciating ordeal for the first time behind the bars of her Colombian prison.
Sainsbury was arrested in possession of 5.9 kilograms of cocaine stashed in headphones inside her suitcase while walking through El Dorado International Airport. She has been awaiting trial ever since, biding her time inside the Bogota women’s jail.
Appearing fragile and at times unable to explain her own behaviour, the 22-year-old explained she had changed her story and mishandled the situation because ‘Angelo’, the man she alleges is the mastermind behind the international drug-smuggling operation, threatened to killer her family and her partner.
‘I received a nasty phone call saying what are you doing? I was told my mum, my sister and my partner would be killed,’ Sainsbury told 60 Minutes.
Appearing emotional and flushed, Cassie Sainsbury (pictured) reveals explosive new details of her alleged crimes from behind bars in Colombia
Sainsbury astonishingly claims the key to her escaping a minimum 21 years and four months in jail lies on her mobile phone – a device to which she has forgotten her passcode.
The threaning images, text messages and emails that will see her avoid spending more than two decades in her Bogota prison are inaccessible because the unique symbol that unlocks the phone has left her mind.
‘I haven’t used the pattern. I’m not going to remember. I’m sure if you were in prison you’d forget,’ she said.
The 22-year-old was teary eyed as she told journalist Liam Bartlett ‘people have had a lot of digs at me because I can’t defend myself’ to which he replied ‘this is your chance’.
Telling her side of the story, the South Australian woman was asked ‘who talked you into it’ where she responded that she was threatened and if she didn’t do the job, she was ‘going to lose [her] family’.
No questions appear to be off limits, with Mr Bartlett asking questions including ‘did Scott know about you working as a prostitute?’.
In an earlier preview shared by Channel 9, Sainsbury was asked ‘Whose idea was it? Whose idea was it to make a quick dollar out of carrying cocaine? How did you get here, who talked you into it?’.
The clips shows the Adelaide woman sitting down with Mr Bartlett in a cell at the El Buen Pastor women’s prison in Bogota.
A new preview from the ‘tell-all interview’ with 60 Minutes has shown Sainsbury defending herself for the first time
Sainsbury was arrested in April when narcotics police found 5.9 kilograms of cocaine in her luggage, hidden in headphone packets
During the first clip Mr Barlett’s questions were aired and Sainsbury’s answers were cut off, however a few of her answers were revealed in the second preview clip.
Sainsbury looks bashful as she shyly responds to him, dressed in a blue and white striped shirt teamed with a gold crucifix necklace.
According to a release from 60 Minutes, the interview will be ‘no holds barred’ and will address ‘every element of Sainsbury’s story’.
The 22-year-old was dubbed ‘Cocaine Cassie’ after narcotics police alleged they had found 5.9 kilograms of the drug in her luggage in April this year.
Her story so far has only been told in media snippets, with her parents painting a picture of the kind-hearted ‘girl next door’, former colleagues revealing her past as a sex worker, her fiance Scott Broadbridge sharing their relationship woes and her Uncle Neil damning her as guilty on national television.
‘Until people know completely what happened they shouldn’t be forming opinions,’ Sainsbury told 60 Minutes
Sainsbury was moments away from a sentence reduction to six years last month when she claimed she carried the drugs because her family had been threatened by an anonymous drug cartel, The Australian reported at the time.
The explosive claim, previously unheard by Colombian prosecutors, saw her bargain thrown out the window as they were at odds with her initial statement.
She now faces a maximum of 30 years behind bars, and her indictment hearing has been scheduled for September 26.
Sainsbury’s interview with 60 Minutes will air on September 24 at 8.30pm on Channel 9.