A British gran who smuggled £1million of cocaine on to a cruise ship fears she will leave a foreign prison in a coffin after getting suspected breast cancer. Susan Clarke, 71, has been in a maximum-security jail in Portugal since last September following her conviction for a drugs plot with husband Roger, 72. The London pensioners, both jailed for eight years, claim they were conned by criminals into carrying suitcases with the drugs hidden in the lining. Frail and gaunt, Susan has lost more than two and a half stone since she was locked up in a 10ft x 10ft cell she shares with three hardened criminals in Lisbon’s tough women’s jail EP Tires. She is living in fear of breast cancer after finding a lump and is awaiting the results of a painful double biopsy on her left breast. Susan, whose appeal against conviction was rejected earlier this month, told the Sunday People from behind bars: “My health is terrible. “I may never get out of here alive and there’s no way I can reduce my sentence now. We were made an example of but I’ve been handed a death sentence. “My worry is that I’ll never be free and I’ll be leaving here in a box.” The grandmother-of-eight who has one great-grandchild said the worst torture was being apart from Roger who is serving his sentence in a different jail in Lisbon. She wept as she told our reporter: “We feel completely abandoned. The Foreign Office has ignored us, Boris Johnson has not helped and we have been completely cut adrift. No pensioner should be treated like this. “We found out our appeal had been dismissed. I’m devastated and angry. “I want to go home, I want to go back to the UK. I want to be with Roger. That’s the worst thing, the worst torture, to be apart from him.” It is not the first time the couple, originally from Chatham, Kent, have found themselves behind bars. They were arrested in Norway in 2010 as they tried to smuggle 240 kilos of cannabis into Oslo. After serving their sentences Susan and former chef Roger moved to a villa in Guardamar on Spain’s Costa Blanca and enjoyed a comfortable life in the expat community. Last year the couple went on a cruise from the Caribbean to Europe on the liner Marco Polo. Officers raided their cabin following a tip-off from Britain’s National Crime Agency as the ship entered Lisbon. Investigators found 20lbs of the Class A drugs in the lining of four suitcases which Roger had been handed on the island of St Lucia. Susan said: “I can understand why people might well believe that we are guilty but we are not. “That’s what hurts so much. We know that we are completely innocent.” Roger claimed he was taking the suitcases back to the UK for a businessman friend who said he could sell the fancy goods for a big profit at Harrods. Roger – serving his sentence in Lisbon’s grim EP Lisboa – said he had been asked to help negotiate the import of exotic fruit during cruise stopovers and he brought the suitcases for the friend as a sideline. But pr
A British gran who smuggled £1million of cocaine on to a cruise ship fears she will leave a foreign prison in a coffin after getting suspected breast cancer. Susan Clarke, 71, has been in a maximum-security jail in Portugal since last September following her conviction for a drugs plot with husband Roger, 72. The London pensioners, both jailed for eight years, claim they were conned by criminals into carrying suitcases with the drugs hidden in the lining. Frail and gaunt, Susan has lost more than two and a half stone since she was locked up in a 10ft x 10ft cell she shares with three hardened criminals in Lisbon’s tough women’s jail EP Tires. She is living in fear of breast cancer after finding a lump and is awaiting the results of a painful double biopsy on her left breast. Susan, whose appeal against conviction was rejected earlier this month, told the Sunday People from behind bars: “My health is terrible. “I may never get out of here alive and there’s no way I can reduce my sentence now. We were made an example of but I’ve been handed a death sentence. “My worry is that I’ll never be free and I’ll be leaving here in a box.” The grandmother-of-eight who has one great-grandchild said the worst torture was being apart from Roger who is serving his sentence in a different jail in Lisbon. She wept as she told our reporter: “We feel completely abandoned. The Foreign Office has ignored us, Boris Johnson has not helped and we have been completely cut adrift. No pensioner should be treated like this. “We found out our appeal had been dismissed. I’m devastated and angry. “I want to go home, I want to go back to the UK. I want to be with Roger. That’s the worst thing, the worst torture, to be apart from him.” It is not the first time the couple, originally from Chatham, Kent, have found themselves behind bars. They were arrested in Norway in 2010 as they tried to smuggle 240 kilos of cannabis into Oslo. After serving their sentences Susan and former chef Roger moved to a villa in Guardamar on Spain’s Costa Blanca and enjoyed a comfortable life in the expat community. Last year the couple went on a cruise from the Caribbean to Europe on the liner Marco Polo. Officers raided their cabin following a tip-off from Britain’s National Crime Agency as the ship entered Lisbon. Investigators found 20lbs of the Class A drugs in the lining of four suitcases which Roger had been handed on the island of St Lucia. Susan said: “I can understand why people might well believe that we are guilty but we are not. “That’s what hurts so much. We know that we are completely innocent.” Roger claimed he was taking the suitcases back to the UK for a businessman friend who said he could sell the fancy goods for a big profit at Harrods. Roger – serving his sentence in Lisbon’s grim EP Lisboa – said he had been asked to help negotiate the import of exotic fruit during cruise stopovers and he brought the suitcases for the friend as a sideline. But pr
0 Comments