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 20 years on appeal, and since then he has been locked up in the Kwangbang 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.”
At the time of his arrest, he pleaded his innocence but said he had been told he faced the death penalty if he did not co-operate with Thai authorities.
Speaking in 2003, he said: “Somehow when the tubs were opened by customs the pills were inside. I do not know how they got there. The tubs did not look like the same ones I packed.
“This was my second trip to Thailand. I came here for the ladies. I came here in April for a week.”
≈ His story will be shown on Inside Out North West, BBC One, tonight at 7.30pm and will also be available to view on iPlayer.
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Will the Bankkok Hilton be paying for B&B at HMP London?
''where up to 20 inmates share a small concrete cell.''
And the Strangeways boys think they have it tough when there's no chocolate under their pillow each night.
His sentence seems about right to me. 20 yrs that is not 99.
People in this country have just got used to the mard judges that dont give out the correct sentence. Welcome back to britain. Enjoy your further 6 yrs for a crime you committed. Then no doubt get much more funding from the tax payer when you are out.
do the crime, pay in time!!! im sorry but for whatever reasons if you smuggle drigs then if you get caught then its a spell in the clinker.
Why are Brits always innocent when they are locked up abroad? Yeah, right.
Sorry but why should he be let off the time he has got left to do? Thailand seems to have the right idea when it comes to sentencing lots of years in squalid conditions would tend to make you think twice about doing it again. Why we have to pay an estimated £47000 a year to lock him up here is taking the mick Thailand should keep him till his sentence is up.
He was very lucky that he didn't recieve the Death Sentence.They should have kept him there.Now the Tax-payer foots another Bill.
should have let him rot,people need to realise they should be held accountable for their actions
This situation seems very much a one way street, why is we hear of foreign criminals convicted of crimes in this country will serve their sentences before (never) being deported, why do we never hear of them being deported to serve their sentences in their home country?
I don't understand, I thought making prison so very unpleasant would act as a detterant, and make people think twice before commiting crimes, unlike here in the soft UK were jails are like palaces and people actually commit crime so they can go there for a holiday.
Where are all these people, and there must be a lot of them if they are 20 to a cell coming from, and why are they still commiting crimes?
Great, now can we deport some of the Foreign convicted criminals in our cells. Please can someone explain to me how a young woman who accepted a pair of looted shorts got six months in prison and a young man who kicked another in the head gets a slap on the wrist and celebrates outside the Court?
Send him back to Thailand, we don't want deadlegs like him back in our country.
Anyone caught and convicted of drug smuggling or dealing anywhere in the world should either be hung, or at least sentenced to LIFE and serve LIFE
So thats him out in a couple months then (human rights etc) or is it soft brittania sorry for him but how much money was/would have been made if he got away with it no come home stay where you are sorry but thats what other countries do
He did the crime now serve the time. He fully knew the risks when he took drugs into Thailand, he should count himself lucky that he didn't face a firing squad or the noose. His father should count himself lucky that he's back in the UK and keep quiet.
Harsh comments, aged 19 when he did the crime, learning difficultuies, it's the dumb kids that end up doing the time. As serious as drug smuggling is I would prefer the people masterminding it, who make all the money, and persuade often vulnerable people to smuggle to get the big sentences. Does it really say that he was smuggling drugs from the UK to Thailand??? I don't think they can scrap the rest of his sentence though, Thailand would be unlikely to allow other prisoners to be transferred
Thousands of youngsters head over to Thailand for full moon parties. They know what they are doing. Yes, he was stupid, but no one is forced to fly thousands of miles to live in an Alex Garland novel for 3 weeks. Supply and demand. I think he has paid his price.
Just shows how messed up the justice system is so what he smuggeled a few pills to a known destination of wild all night drug parties!!!! He has served enough time for his sin.
Only last week we saw 3 scum bags who tortured a diabeled friend on the street where I live and they walked from court with a slap on the wrists its all cocked up if you ask me!!!
What is the matter with you people?¡!¿ have any of you ever even been out of the house!!! That kid has just been through things that you small minded cranks cannot even imagine and you still want more. Read The Damage Done by Warren Fellows and then remember what Benjamin Disraeli said "People are sent to prison AS punishment not FOR punishment" ... the loss of liberty is the punishment in itself! In a civilized society human beings, especially young lads that made a wee mistake should not be turned in to animals via daily maltreatment by sadistic small minded crack pots ... not least because when the animals are released they may just come across other small minded individuals and snap ... and you people wouldn't want that, now would you!
Michael Connell, you should consider yourself to be very, very fortunate indeed. Two young women from the Phillipines were executed not so very long ago in Thailand for smuggling far less than you. You have served eight years in a very harsh prison and now you are back in the UK to serve out the rest of your sentence at OUR expense. Who paid for your air ticket, by the way? I don't suppose it was the Thai government, was it?
You are a convicted drug smuggler and should have completed your jail time in Bangkok, as that is where you committed the offence. You will get no sympathy from me. It's your family I feel sorry for.
its not the brightest thing to smuggle drugs we all know that but if it was one of your own family member would you let them be hung drawn and quartered. i actually visited him when i was in thailand and i think he has learned a harsh lesson and wont be doing it again lay off the lad ! he hasnt murdered of raped anyone. supply and demand obviously its ok for all the brits to have class a in thailand but the mule gets the time there as equally as bad and not bothered who suffers as long as they can rave with a few pills. he was young naive and lost all his 20's punishment enough you would do less for worse here.