A convicted drug trafficker who spent years in a Thailand jail has opened up on her time sharing a cell with 120 other women and eating food with maggots in it.
Holly Deane-Johns, 51, was subjected to the awful living conditions while serving time at Lardyao Women’s Correctional Institution.
She had been jailed for trying to post 10.4g of heroin back to Australia in 2000 and pleaded guilty and sentenced to 31 years in jail in 2003.
Ms Deane-Johns managed to be transferred to Bandyup Prison, in Perth, in 2007 before she was released in 2012 on five-year parole and now works driving an Uber in her home state.
A convicted drug trafficker who spent years in a Thailand jail has opened up on her time sharing a cell with 120 other women and eating food with maggots in it
Holly Deane-Johns, 51, was subjected to the awful living conditions while serving time at Lardyao Women’s Correctional Institution
She managed to avoid the death penalty but had to endure terrible living conditions while serving in the Thailand jail dubbed the ‘Bangkok Hilton’.
Ms Deane-Johns opened up on her experience recalling the cramped living conditions, poor quality food and unsanitary conditions.
The Australian woman was shoved into a five-by-six metre cell that she shared with 120 women.
‘It was just f***ing horrible, I was wondering where I was going to sleep,’ she told the West Australian.
Ms Deane-Johns recalled having to fight for free spots in the cell with cellmates taking over when their peer left to momentarily go to the bathroom.
She recalled sleeping in the cell shoulder to shoulder and sticking to people in the heat.
Ms Deane-Johns said on several occasions she woke up with period blood on her because she was sleeping so closely to her inmates.
Small sicknesses like conjunctivitis could turn deadly with one prisoner taking it upon herself to remove a rotten tooth with a set of pliers.
‘Everything was harsh, even things as small as a toothache could turn into something big,’ Ms Deane-Johns said.
Punishments were as terrible as the conditions with inmates forced to stand on tables and hold water over their heads ‘like a crucifixion’.
A cell built to house five inmates in the high-security prison in Bangkok, Thailand
The quality of food was so poor Ms Deane-Johns often found stones, hair and maggots in her meals – while other times she just went hungry.
‘Sometimes, if you didn’t have work, your whole day would consist of just sitting and doing nothing,’ she said.
Ms Deane-Johns lost her close friend Aong after a long struggle with AIDs and described the careless way her body was handled by guards.
‘After they picked her up, I watched from my cell as two guys picked her up in a bag and swung her three times before throwing her into a truck like a sack of potatoes. You could hear the thud and I was like, “That’s my mate”,’ she said.
She said she felt alienated because she was the only Australian in the cell and tried to blend in as best as she could.
She dyed her hair, sold food and toiletries, made silk flowers to sell and learned how to speak Thai.
Ms Deane-Jones said she learned to become scarce and attract little attention after seeing the media storm around Schapelle Corby.
In October 2004, Corby became a household name when the then 27-year-old beauty student was arrested at Bali’s Ngurah Rai Airport with 4.2kg of marijuana in her boogie board bag, a crime she has always denied committing.
Her case was highly-publicised with media closely reporting on the court trial.
Ms Deane-Jones felt sorry for Ms Corby and sent her a letter advising her to remain silent – but she did not receive a reply and does not know if she received the letter.
Ms Deane-Jones managed to avoid the death penalty but had to endure terrible living conditions while serving time in the Thailand jail dubbed the ‘Bangkok Hilton’
Ms Deane-Jones hopes to one day share her full experience and has written them down in a manuscript titled, ‘Holly’s Hell – My Long Road Home’
Ms Deane-Jones was able to be transferred back to Australia after a chance meeting with Western Australian woman Debbie Singh.
Ms Singh’s brother John was the first Australian to be transferred from a Thai prison in 2003 after he was jailed for fraud in 1997.
His transfer had set a precedent and Ms Singh would visit Ms Deane-Jones and other inmates to try and help them come back home.
She was able to be sent home due to an agreement signed between Thailand and Australia in 2002.
Inmates could be sent back to their home country as long as their repatriation was paid for and they remained behind bars to finish their sentence.
Former premier Carmen Lawrence, Labor supports Graham Edwards and John Hyde have been credited for bringing Ms Deane-Jones back home in 2007.
Ms Deane-Jones was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and now works as an Uber driver following her release from jail in 2012.
She hopes to one day share her full experience and has written them down in a manuscript titled, ‘Holly’s Hell – My Long Road Home’.
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