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Michaella McCollum: Peru drug smuggler tells of 'moment of madness' | |
(about 2 hours later) | |
A woman from County Tyrone who was sent to prison for drug smuggling in South America has said her decision was made in "my moment of madness". | |
Michaella McCollum was freed on parole in Peru this week after serving more than two years in jail in the country. | |
She said that if the cocaine she was trying to take to Europe had reached its intended destination she could have had "a lot of blood on my hands". | |
"I could have caused a lot of harm to people," the Dungannon woman added. | |
Ms McCollum and Melissa Reid, from Lenzie, near Glasgow in Scotland, were caught with 11kg (24lb) of cocaine in their luggage at Lima airport in August 2013. | |
They were trying to board a flight to Madrid in Spain. | |
Followed | |
Ms McCollum told Irish state broadcaster RTÉ she had been "very naive, so young and very insecure" when she attempted to smuggle the cocaine. | |
"A lot of times I didn't know how to say no to somebody," she said. | |
"I kind of just followed along with it and I guess a part of me kind of wanted to be something I'm not. | |
"But simply I made a decision in my moment of madness." | |
Ms McCollum said she is "not a bad person" and wanted to demonstrate that by doing "something good". | |
She said she regretted the "harm that I've done and so much suffering" caused to her family. | |
Ruined | |
And she acknowledged that had she managed to transport the drugs to Spain she could have "caused destruction to society". | |
She said: "In my time here, I thought: 'What if the drugs had got back [to Europe]? What would've happened?' | |
"I probably would've had a lot of blood on my hands, the amount of families that would've ruined. | |
"I could have potentially killed a lot of people, not directly but I could have caused a lot of harm to people." | "I could have potentially killed a lot of people, not directly but I could have caused a lot of harm to people." |
Ms McCollum and Ms Reid initially claimed they had been kidnapped and forced to carry the drugs. | |
But the pair later admitted trying to smuggle cocaine worth £1.5m from Peru to Spain and were jailed for six years and eight months. | |
She said that during her time in prison she had "forgotten the things that everybody takes for granted". | |
"Seeing the sun, seeing the darkness, seeing the moon and the stars, things I haven't seen in almost three years," she said. | |
Transfer | |
Ms McCollum was released on parole on Thursday night and her solicitor is waiting to hear the terms of her release. | |
It is understood she will have to remain in the South American country for a considerable time under her parole conditions. | |
She was freed under new legislation on early prison release introduced in Peru last year, having served two years and three months. | |
Ms Reid remains in a Peruvian prison. | |
She has been seeking to serve the remainder of her sentence closer to home in Scotland. | She has been seeking to serve the remainder of her sentence closer to home in Scotland. |
A transfer request for her was approved by the Scottish Prison Service in January 2015. | A transfer request for her was approved by the Scottish Prison Service in January 2015. |
But it says any transfer would ultimately be for the Peruvian prison service to determine. | But it says any transfer would ultimately be for the Peruvian prison service to determine. |