All language subtitles for episode_2_thailand_the_sandra_gregory_story

I thought I was going to have the
absolute holiday of a lifetime.

This was a dream come true.

But during this time, this chap moved
into the bungalow next to me. His name

Robert. And he basically said that if I
was to take a small package to Tokyo for

him, he would give me a thousand pounds.

The whole time sitting on that train, my
heart was just pounding.

And I just felt as though everybody on
that carriage knew what we were doing.

I kept thinking, get off the train.

But it was too late to get off the
train. If I'm honest, I knew I was going

be arrested and I just knew it was all
going to go wrong.

I could have got rid of the drugs.

I should have done. When we walked into
the airport, two men ran up behind me.

And they just grabbed my bag and dragged
me to the custody room.

And of course then I did begin to panic
because I thought there's no way out of

this at all. They will impose the death
penalty.

I was 27 at that point.

Well, I left for Thailand because I
could leave for Thailand and I went with

friend of a friend who was already
going. He'd already got his trip planned

I went along with him. Less than a week
after talking about it, I was on a plane

going.

I thought I was going to be away for
three months. I thought I was going to

the absolute holiday of a lifetime and I
was going to see tigers and elephants

and jungles and rainforests and all that
wonderful stuff.

We decided, John and I, that we were
actually going to walk to Bangkok

it was a nice day. It was about 5 o
'clock in the evening, so the sun's not

going to go down for hours because, of
course, the sun doesn't go down for

in the middle of the British summer.

Wow.

So we started to walk to Bangkok along
an eight -lane highway past loads and

loads of bus stops full of people and
children coming home from school and

things.

And taxi drivers would pull up and say,
you know, do you want a lift? And cab to

Bangkok. We're like, oh, no, no, no.

It's so miserable. I promise you, this
is the best way to leave Thailand.

Well, when I first got there, it was
just totally overwhelming. And I was

excited and anxious and a little bit
nervous and cautious.

But I was on sensory overload, really,
with the sights and the smells and

everything that was going on around me.
And I was just in awe of the whole

place, really.

And I just felt like I was living an
adventure.

It was great and I loved it from the
very beginning. I really did.

Well, I didn't stay in Bangkok very
long. The guy I went with was going

That was the end of that relationship.

It wasn't an intimate relationship or
anything like that. And that's when I

the Khao San Road, which is the sort of
young, hippie backpacker area.

And I was quite disappointed with it,
really, because it was so western. It

not like being in Thailand at all.

I honestly didn't stay in Bangkok very
long. It was a bit too much at first. It

was just so overwhelming.

So I bought a ticket. I bought a boat
ticket to go down to one of the islands.

Didn't really know which one to choose,
so the woman said, you might as well go

to Koh Samui.

You know, when that boat docked in the
harbour the next day, I honestly had to

start pinching myself because I thought
I have died and gone to heaven.

I have landed in absolute paradise on
earth.

Check this out.

I'd never seen tropical beaches.

But within a couple of days of being
there, I just knew I was born to live on

beach because I just came alive on that
beach. I loved it. The white sands and

the turquoise waters and I was into the
water sports and the volleyball on the

beach and I just loved it. And you know,
for another five weeks I stayed down

there and my life just drifted on by as
I became the stereotypical beach bum.

Got my hair all plaited up and got the
suntan and...

Loved it. Absolutely loved it. And I
really was beginning to fall totally in

love with Thailand.

As I was laying in my little bamboo
bungalow this one night, The person in

bungalow next to me was playing some
sort of tinkly music. And as soon as I

heard that music, I realized I haven't
had enough. I have not had enough of

incredible country.

And I was not ready or prepared to go
back to what I remembered as that

miserable gray little island that I was
supposed to call home.

I went straight back to the city, and I
got work, and I got an apartment, and I

got a social life, got a boyfriend.

Loved it. I loved Bangkok.

It used to take up to three hours to get
to this school that I was working at,

if I used the road. So I would ride the
canal.

But the trouble with the canals is that
you are riding on an open sewer.

an untreated, unfiltered, open sewer.

And the Thai people just take a book or
a piece of paper, fold it in half, and

they put it over their mouth and nose,
and it protects them from the water.

such a simple solution, but it works.

Now, I wasn't very diligent with my book
or my piece of paper, and I remember I

got splashed one wall.

I like to think that I didn't lick it
away, but I think I probably did, and

just kind of hoped, oh, I'm sure that'll
be okay, you know, a bit of dirty

water. It'll be okay.

But of course it wasn't okay.

And I woke up the next morning and I was
so violently ill that I honestly

wondered whether I was in the process of
dying.

But I am prone to hysteria and
overreaction, so I told myself, just

bit, it'll be okay.

Went along to see this doctor and he
said, you've got amoebic dysentery,

picked it up from the canal water.

I was just absolutely horrified at the
idea of having parasites in me.

Life seemed to be going from bad to
worse, and I was getting more and more

miserable.

So I decided that, yeah, I would go down
to this island, I'd take a break, I'd

be in a nice place with nice people, get
my head together, then come back and

make a fresh start in Bangkok, get work
and buy my ticket to go home.

Shortly after going down to this island,
I woke up one morning, and I was really

quite ill.

And I was ill with a headache and a
fever and really just not feeling 100 %

all. And of course I'd caught dengue
fever.

It's a bit like malaria.

The biggest difference between dengue
fever and malaria is that they can't

dengue fever.

The headaches were so intense that I
used to sit in the shade wearing a

hat and a pair of sunglasses.

And I would still feel as though my head
was going to explode.

I just wanted to come home. I didn't
have any money. I mean, I had enough to

survive on, but I was literally counting
the pennies.

So I'm down on this island, and paradise
had actually turned into hell on earth.

I felt so alone.

I had no connection with any of the
foreigners who were there, who were all

there on holiday enjoying the beach. I
wasn't on holiday, I wasn't enjoying the

beach, and I just didn't want to be
there.

But during this time, this chap moved
into the bungalow next to me.

All right.

You English?

Yeah, you?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

His name was Robert.

Sandra. Sandra.

Nice to meet you.

Thank you.

Yeah, it's hot, isn't it? Yeah. And when
I look back on it, that chap was like a

refreshing breath of British fresh air.
He was so English.

The room's nice.

Yeah, yeah, not bad at all. Yeah? Yeah,
fine.

I'll check in and I'll come out and say
hello, yeah? OK.

He looked like he had just stepped off a
plane from the country which, at that

time, I probably would have crawled over
glass to get to.

We didn't spend a lot of time with each
other, we didn't get to know each other,

but it was nice just to touch base with
him and talk about the weather, because

you do when you meet an English person,
you talk about the weather.

I can't say I clicked with him.

I can't say I actually connected with
him in any deep way. We didn't really

an awful lot to do with each other.

He knew I'd been away from home for a
long time because I didn't have the

at that time for a ticket home.

He told me he travelled around Asia, he
went to Japan, he went different places,

he dealt in jewellery and gems and
things like that, which isn't uncommon

because lots of people were involved in
the import -export business.

Now I had no idea that he was going to
be...

the person who changed the rest of my
life. I mean, I didn't, I can't say I

liked him.

I don't think I disliked him.

But he wasn't my sort of person.

I certainly didn't fancy him or anything
like that. We didn't have an intimate

relationship.

We just had this very fleeting meeting
for a couple of days because we were

neighbours in a beautiful spot on a
beautiful island.

Now I would say I'm quite a good judge
of character but I think I'm a good

of character because of where I've been
and the sorts of people I've met.

At that time I was still very naive. I
was certainly very gullible but I was

very naive and I was very immature.

And I didn't see people for what they
were. I saw people for what I thought

were. I certainly had my suspicions but
to be fair an awful lot of people who do

that backpacking route through Thailand
and hang out on the beaches for a long

time are partial to drugs.

And I just assumed that people were good
-natured and honest and loyal and

decent people.

Not everybody is.

I needed to get back to Bangkok because
I needed to phone my family at Christmas

time.

I could have phoned from the island but
I couldn't remember their phone number

at the time and I knew I had to get back
to the city where I had my phone book

so I could make this phone call and wish
them all a happy Christmas.

And I made it just in time, just before
the 25th and I phoned.

It was quite an emotional phone call
because, again, I was lying and saying

everything was absolutely fine and
everything wasn't absolutely fine at

I was not really a fan of Christmas and
I never thought it was that important,

but that was the first Christmas at
which I would have given just about

to be sat there with my parents.

A few days after Christmas, the dengue
fever had started to pass. I was feeling

a bit better.

I was out shopping one day or doing
something in Bangkok and I bumped

That guy from the island, Robert.

Robert, hey, how you doing?

Whether it was a coincidence or not, I
don't know. Whether it was fate, some

people talk about fate, or your destiny,
or... I don't know.

I can only surmise on that one, really.

It's certainly changed the course of my
life, though.

There's a really nice little place I
know around there, actually.

Get back. Have you sorted out money yet?

No, I've had a bit of a nightmare. He
said he had an idea

how I could raise enough money quite
quickly to buy a ticket back to

Would I like to listen to his idea?

And I was hugely grateful. I thought,
wow, if he's got a good idea and he's

prepared to share it with me, then
that's wonderful.

Thanks very much.

You've been all right?

Yeah.

I'm still not well.

Still feeling a bit shit. I just want to
get home to be honest.

Good to bump into you, actually.

And he basically said that if I was to
take a small packet for Tokyo for him,

would give me £1 ,000.

So that's the thing I was saying to you
back there. If you want, I can help you

out a little bit.

If you're looking for a bit of work, I
can just get you to carry a packet for

me.

Yes, it's a package.

And of course my mind started to tick
over that, oh, well, package, it sounds

bit dodgy, doesn't it? Package to Tokyo.

It's up to you, like. But he told me he
was a jewellery dealer and I assumed

that what he was talking about would be
gem.

But as I was pondering the gem smuggling
and, oh, I don't know about this, it

all sounds a bit dodgy, I saw the back
of his left hand.

What have you done to your hand?

I hit an artery instead of a vein.

The other day. Oh.

Yeah.

And that was the point at which I
realised he seems to have a bit of a

with drugs.

What exactly is going to be in this
package then?

Just some heroin.

Just like for me and Ruth.

Right.

Do you want me to sell or...? No, no,
no, no, that's the thing. It's nothing

like that. That's why I wouldn't ask
Robert White.

He was very matter -of -fact about it.
He didn't try to persuade me. He

didn't... conned me into doing it. He
just asked me if I wanted to do this or

not. Well,

I was a

bit surprised

and I didn't really know what to say and
I didn't say anything

at all. I went home and I thought,

Only that, well, you know, it's not my
fault he's a heroin addict.

It's not my problem. It's not my fault.
I didn't force it on him.

If I didn't do it, somebody else was
going to do it.

And I knew that he wasn't going to sell
it. I thought, well, if he was standing

outside of school gates and selling it
to 10 -year -olds, then it would be a

different. But he's not even going to
sell it. So maybe it's not so bad after

all. And anyway, nobody would ever know.

If I did it just once. And beyond that,
I didn't really think about it because

all I wanted was for it to be okay.

I just wanted to do this one thing and
it seemed so easy.

Just go to Tokyo, come back, buy a
ticket and go home.

I should have thought it was strange.

And now, of course, I'm asked all the
time, didn't you think it was odd? Why

didn't you ask him to take it himself?

Well, that's logic thinking and I wasn't
thinking logically.

And I think being English...

I trusted him.

He was the same age as me, same
nationality as me, and I just assumed I

trust him.

And if I'd stopped and thought about it
for long enough, I wouldn't have done

it.

And if I had have done, somebody would
have said, go to the embassy. The

will help you. Phone home.

There's ways out of this. There's people
there to help if you're having a

problem. And I could have asked for some
money.

But I didn't.

And I didn't because, well, pride always
comes before a fall.

And I'd gone away on a holiday of a
lifetime.

And I thought that in asking for help, I
would be admitting defeat.

I didn't need a thousand pounds. I
needed about 500 pounds for a one -way

to go home.

Once I decided that I was going to do
this, and I'd agreed to do this, The

just seemed to disappear in a bit of a
haze, to be honest with you. I didn't

think about the negative consequences
and I didn't make a list of pros and

All I was thinking about was just do
this one thing. Just do this one thing,

it over with, come back, buy a ticket
and go home.

Well, the morning of the 5th of
February, it's hard to describe how I

feeling because I wasn't really feeling
anything. I was feeling very numb, as

though I was living in a bit of a dream.

And I didn't want to do this.

But it was too late to back out. I'd
agreed to do it.

He'd already bought the plane ticket. It
had already been organised and it felt

as though it was just too late to back
out.

I was going home.

And I was even thinking, will I need a
coat when I get there?

It's February, March time. It's going to
be cold in London.

My mind was at home. My heart was at
home.

About halfway through the day, I'm not
sure what time it was, Robert came

Right. Yeah.

How you doing?

He put these four packages, quite small
packages, down on the side.

That's it, basically.

They were wrapped in masking tape. He'd
already wrapped them.

Okay. And I was not going to be putting
these in my pocket.

It's all well wrapped up and everything.

And I didn't want him to be there. I
didn't want to see him.

I wanted him to go away as quickly as
possible. I just wanted this to be over.

See you in a bit. See you later.

See you later.

We'd arranged to meet at the ticket
office to the express train to the

Horribly, at the end of the day, we were
at different ticket offices.

I spent what seemed like days and days
sitting at the station waiting for

Robert. It wasn't days, it was probably
about an hour.

And the time was ticking by, I kept
looking at my watch and realising he's

he's not here, where is he?

And I had a sneaking feeling somewhere
in the back of my mind or the back of my

heart that this was all going wrong.

If I'm honest, I knew I was going to be
arrested and I just knew it was all

going to go wrong.

And eventually I walked up the platform
and I saw his girlfriend running down

the platform.

And she looked very angry and, oh, where
have you been? And we've been waiting

for you. And I said, but I've been
waiting for you.

And it turned out that there was more
than one ticket office.

We eventually found a train that was
going to the airport. It wasn't the

train, it was just the normal train that
stopped at every single train station

on the way to the airport.

And the whole time sitting on that
train, I was ill. I had this incredible

in my thigh that I was sort of wedging
under my ribcage into the back of this

seat to make this pain go away.

We were the only foreigners on the
train, everybody else was Thai and they

commuters.

And I just had a feeling that they were
all looking at us because they all knew

what we were doing.

My heart was just pounding, I was
sweating, I was ill and I just wanted it

And again I kept thinking, get off the
train, get off the train and either go

home or get in a taxi and go separate.

And shortly after we got on that train,
there was actually a citizen's arrest.

And when I realized that this was a
citizen's arrest, it just seemed like a

warning from the God that Sandra, stop
what you're doing, just get off the

train.

But it was too late to get off the
train. I couldn't get off the train

Robert was there and it had all been
organized and I just felt like I

I couldn't get off, it was too late.

When we walked into the airport,

It just seemed very, very, what we were
doing became very, very real.

And Robert said, we're late, but we'll
check in so they know we're here, and

then we'll separate.

I said, okay.

So we found the check -in to the flight
that we were on. There was nobody there

because we were so late. Everybody who'd
already booked onto that flight were

already sitting on the plane.

Robert went up and he handed in his
passport and his ticket.

And these chaps in plain casual clothes
appeared.

Oh, they looked really pleased to see
him. Oh, Mr. Locke, Mr. Locke, good.

Please come this way. We've been waiting
for you.

And I just assumed that they were
holding the plane up for him because

booked a ticket and he was late. So they
were going to escort him quickly onto

the plane. And I couldn't. I thought,
I've never heard of such a thing,

getting such VIP treatment, and he's not
really a VIP, but how come he's getting

the VIP treatment and not me? And they
asked me whether I was with him, and

said, are you with Robert Locke? And I
said, yes.

And they said, oh, good, then you come
this way as well then, please. I said,

oh, thank you very much.

And we all went trotting off together.

But we went all the way through the
airport.

down this little corridor and into this
little room.

I didn't quite know why we were there.

And then all hell seemed to break loose.

Can you kind of explain what you're
doing? And I looked up to my left and

there was a board covered in
photographs.

And on the top of the board, they'd
written, And that was

the point at which I realised that these
chaps from the Czechian counter were

actually customs officers.

They had received a tip -off about
Robert, and the British Embassy had told

Thai customs to wait for him at the
airport.

And I just stood there, thinking, Oh,
shit.

This is really bad news. This is not
supposed to be happening.

I had a

feeling in the morning that it was all
going to go wrong. And there, lo and

behold, it was going all terribly wrong.
But nobody was interested in me or my

bags or they didn't take my shoes off or
look in my belt or anything like that.

Robert was taken behind a screen and he
came back and he said to Ruth, I've just

been x -rayed.

And I thought, hmm, that's not a good
sign. And then Ruth was taken behind the

screen and she said, yeah, I've just
been x -rayed. And I thought,

Looks like if they've done two, they're
going to do three, even though they're

not searching my bag.

And then they didn't search my bag. They
didn't search me. Like I say, nobody

seemed to be very interested in me at
all.

And then just at the end, one of them
said, OK, we need an X -ray from you as

well. Take your bag off and come with
me.

And of course, then I did begin to panic
because I thought there's no way out of

this at all.

So they took an x -ray and then they
said you can take your bags and you can

now.

And we left.

I just assumed it hadn't showed up on
the x -ray.

And I thought, well, gosh, that was
quite lucky, wasn't it?

It obviously just hasn't shown up and
we're okay.

They took us to the Bureau de Chance
because we didn't have any money.

So we went and we changed money.

The woman who was holding the plane up
on the walkie -talkie said to me, if you

still need to go to the toilet, there's
one just over there, and you can go now

if you want.

I didn't go to the toilet. I could have
got rid of what I had. I could have got

rid of the drug.

I should have done. I shouldn't have
done it in the first place.

I thought Robert will be annoyed at me.
He's bought the plane ticket.

Then I'll owe him money for the plane
ticket. So I just, again, I was

I'm just going to do this.

So it'll be okay.

So we changed our money.

and walked with this woman.

And she's talking to the pilot, and
she's telling the pilot, we're walking

such and such a runway, and we'll be
there within 35 seconds. And just as we

were walking down like a black ramp
towards the gate and the plane, two

men ran up behind me, and they just
grabbed my bag, my shoulder bag, and

me back to the customs check.

They had the x -ray up on the glass
screen with the light behind it.

And actually, it was as clear as clear
could be.

Robert and Ruth were brought in behind
me.

And he was very, very angry.

I turned to Robert and said, but Robert,
look, they can see.

And he just denied all knowledge of me.
I'm sorry, I don't even know who she is.

I don't know who she is. I don't know
who you are. What?

You can just, you know, take us from her
completely.

Yeah.

Robert, tell them the truth. You've got
to tell them the truth.

I don't know who you are.

We had never discussed what would happen
or what we would do if we got caught.

I just assumed, and I assumed too much,
obviously.

But I just assumed that...

A, we wouldn't get caught, and B, if we
did get caught, that he would maybe

be in it with me.

And I was really quite surprised, and I
was a bit hurt.

I looked terribly disappointed, but
then, of course, I began to realize, I

even know this guy.

I've just done this thing for him. I
don't know him. And all of a sudden, of

course, I felt very alone.

And I was actually very alone because
almost immediately we were all three

separated.

When they brought out a set of handcuffs
to put on me, I just about lost it.

It was too real. It was too much.

So he immediately did the cuff and took
them off and I was like, oh.

That's okay then.

It was just a bit of a haze of panic and
shock.

There was one guy who was walking around
the room in front of me and he kept, he

was holding his fingers up to his head
like that and he kept looking at me and

he kept laughing and he kept saying,
hmm, you heroine, you bad.

In Thai, you die.

And I didn't know if he was joking, I
didn't know if he was winding me up.

I thought, this can't happen to me. They
can't shoot me for this.

I mean, I'm British.

They can't shoot me for what I've just
done.

But that's when I began to realise that,
you know what, I am in a bit of a spot

of bother here.

It was incredibly embarrassing, walking
all the way through the airport, out

into this van and taken off to... I
didn't know where we were going.

A police station somewhere in Bangkok.

It always takes a long time to get to
where you're going in Bangkok because of

the roads. And it's a big city.

The traffic wasn't too bad, but it still
took quite a long time.

I fell asleep in the van.

I always fall asleep when I've had a
shock.

I was dreaming about, I don't know, and
I was woken up.

And I turned to Robert when I woke up
and I said, that was a dream, wasn't it?

Tell me that was a dream.

And he said, no, it bloody well wasn't a
dream. Get out of the van.

We were put in separate cages that were
opposite each other and separated by a

walkway.

I don't know if I should call it a cell.
It wasn't really a cell at all. It was

like a cage, an old -fashioned gorilla
cage that you'd see at London Zoo.

But that's where we spent the next six
days.

I felt lots of things over those next
few days. I felt just total shock and

disbelief that this cannot possibly be
happening.

I wasn't supposed to be here, and now I
am here.

I won't be here for very long because
they'll realise that I've just been

and I didn't mean it and I've never done
it before and they'll let me go because

they just will.

And then at other times I realise that
this is a really bad situation and it

doesn't look like I'm going anywhere at
all and the guy with his fingers up to

his head in the airport telling me
basically that they will impose the

penalty and he was right actually, they
do impose the death penalty in Thailand.

I was so totally disgusted with where I
was and what I'd done and I was so

disgusted with myself and so ashamed of
myself that I bought a piece of paper

and a pencil from the policeman
downstairs and I wrote a letter to my

And I wrote and I told them to forget
they'd had a daughter.

And I just thought that if they were to
do this, they could just move on with

their lives. I told them to...

Burn all the photographs, tear up all my
letters, never mention my name again.

Just get on with the rest of your lives
and forget all about me.

A woman came from the British Embassy to
see me, as they always do when there's

been a foreign arrest in a country.

And she said that she wanted my parents'
name and address because she thought

they should be informed, and I said no.

Don't tell my parents, don't tell
anybody.

And she said to me, well, Sandra...

The media might be quite interested in
this case.

And I thought, well, she's off her head.
Why would the media be interested in

this?

And she said, it would be better for
your parents to hear the news from us

to hear the news from a reporter or to
hear it on the radio one day.

So I gave her my parents' address and
their names and they sent the policeman

round to their house and this policeman
knocked on the door and told them.

And I assume he told them to sit down
because he had some bad news.

And then he told them that their
daughter had just been arrested in

a drugs charge.

And as soon as we left the police
station, a camera was straight in my

all these people were saying, Sandra,
Sandra, Sandra, you know, what are you

thinking? What's going on? All these
questions in this camera. And down the

of this camera, I could see ITN.

Obviously,

I knew that this was the ITN news.

My grandfather watches ITN news.

And as I walked out of the police
station,

I thought, this is going to kill him.

He's going to get up in the morning,
he's going to turn his television on and

he's going to see me being taken to
court and this is going to kill him.

I don't know why they were interested in
this case. There are men who are

arrested quite, well, not quite
regularly, but there are men who have

arrested before and since me and they
haven't been followed by the press.

The next morning I was called for a
visit.

And somebody said to me, oh, your
parents are in the embassy room.

And when I went out, it was very
emotional.

And they just looked so old.

They'd paled.

And they just looked so small.

And they just looked so out of place
there.

And they came and they sat down.

And there was chicken wire, so you
couldn't pass anything through.

And my parents stuck their fingers
through the chicken wire.

The sleeping conditions in Lajau were
like sardines in a tin. No, they weren't

like sardines in a tin, actually,
because the sardines have got lots of

tomato sauce.

We didn't have that much room.

The time passes because the time in
front of you is so vast that you can't

counter. But the time behind you starts
to get bigger and bigger and bigger.

People used to write to me and say, oh,
as long as you've got hope, you'll be

okay.

And do you know what? That's rubbish.

That is so rubbish.

Hope is absolutely no good whatsoever
when it turns out to be false hope.

We went out to court once a month for
three years. The trial took quite a long

time. When the trial was completed, we
went out for sentencing.

This was a sobbing Sandra Gregory who
arrived at court to hear her fate almost

exactly three years after she was
arrested trying to smuggle three and a

ounces of heroin through Bangkok
airport.

She was bundled into the court cells,
still protesting they were not her

In evidence, Gregory claimed the heroin
belonged to her co -accused, Robert

Lott, from Cambridge.

No drugs were found on him. The judge is
reading in royal Thai, and the only

words I caught were pahan, shivit, which
means termination of life.

After a ten -minute hearing conducted in
the Thai language, Gregory had her

sentence confirmed by a translator.

And the guy at the airport with his
fingers up to his head.

It was quite right.

The death penalty is the mandatory
sentence for the crime I'd committed in

Thailand.

And it is death by machine gun. They
used to bend people over a cross and

would hold on to the Thai orchid and
they would be shot through the back.

And I turned to this journalist who I'd
never seen before and I said, well, what

did Robert get?

He was stood about six foot away from
me.

Oh, she said, he got yok fong.

They lifted the charges with him.

To my parents, I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry to my family.

Really, I am so sorry.

After a ten -minute hearing conducted in
the Thai language, Gregory had her

sentence confirmed by a translator.

And it was a woman behind me. She was
Thai, but she was working for an English

newspaper.

She said, no, no, no, no. He's reduced
it to life.

And then he reduced it to 25 years for
you.

Sandra Gregory is about to leave this
holding cell for what could be a long

period in a Thai jail. Her only hope, an
appeal or intervention by the British

Prime Minister John Major, and that's
thought unlikely.

It's not fair. Why are they doing this
to me? As she was driven away to prison,

her last thoughts were of her family.

22 more years.

I'm going to be an old woman before I
see them.

And I told the truth.

I never lied in this whole case. I never
lied.

But he lied and he goes home. Is that
fair?

Mark Austin, ITN, Bangkok.

The death penalty wasn't the worst case
scenario. Death is death, you die.

Life lingers with a life sentence.

And you linger in a state of false hope,
denial and...

Disillusions, really.

Nobody actually copes, I don't think,
with a life sentence.

You cope with today, tomorrow, next
week, the next appeal.

I spent four years, four months and four
days in Ladell Prison.

I wasn't counting.

As the flight from Bangkok arrived at
Heathrow, the handcuffs for Sandra

were taken on board.

But she was home to Britain for the
first time in seven years.

We flew into London in the morning.

The sun had just come up. I remember
feeling absolutely freezing cold.

I was driven through London in the back
of a van.

And London looked so clean and it looked
so orderly. There were children waiting

at bus stops in their school uniforms
going off to school and people going to

work. This is what I remember. This is
home. I've finally come home.

The day I was granted my pardon was a
big deal. It was a big day. I phoned my

parents again because my mother had told
me on the phone in the afternoon, the

governor had told me to phone my mother.

And I phoned her and I said, just tell
me what you told me this afternoon once

again.

And she told me again, very slowly.

The king of Thailand has granted you a
royal pardon.

2002, I went to university for a
geography degree. So I've spent the last

years at university, and that was my
whole entire focus.

Tomorrow is my graduation ceremony.

It's all pomp and tradition and ceremony
for ceremony's purpose, and I wouldn't

really go.

But my parents are calling it a proud
day.

So I'm going for them.

Today's been a good day. It's been a
very good day today. It's been the

conclusion of the past three or four
years.

It's quite sad in a way.

Yeah, I think finally I've done
something to make my father proud.

In the book!

So he didn't forget that he had a
daughter. He's actually quite proud of

which is nice.

I know I'm a bit old to be caring what
my father thinks, but I do still care

what he thinks, because he's a good guy,
and it's nice to see him happy.

And I'm happy with me as well.

Well, for many years, I'm afraid she was
a pain in the neck. I never dreamed

we'd have a day like today, but we
couldn't have anticipated a day like

Just wonderful.

People have often asked me, you know, do
you really regret this, Sandra?

You did what you did. You went to prison
and you're famous now.

You know, the media wants to interview
you and you've written a book and gosh,

it's such a big part of your life.

Do you really regret it?

I said, you know what? I regret it more
now than I've ever regretted it before.

So yeah, I do regret it.

And if I could turn the clock back and
change it, I would.

Of course I would.

Next week in Banged Up Abroad, we hear
the story of Mark, who not only risked

his freedom, but Alexandra put his life
in jeopardy when he became a human

donkey carrying cocaine from San
Francisco to Australia.

Next night, cosmetic surgery addicts
in...