And if National Geographic is going to present this story the way I think they will, then my opinion of the decision makers at National Geographic will be going down several notches too.
__________________________________________________________________
Brit who dealt drugs in Thailand complains about ‘torture’ of prison sentence
January 24, 2019
A British man says going to prison for dealing drugs in Thailand was ‘torture’. Jimmy Kelly was sentenced to 30 years but spent just three behind bars for selling crystal meth at the bar he owned in the southeast Asian country.
His sentence was dramatically cut because his brother Gary paid £80,000 in life savings, but Kelly says he had a ‘hellish’ time in prison where he was attacked and lost three teeth.
Kelly moved to Thailand from his home in Watford after he was made redundant from his job as a postman. He spent his £33,000 redundancy money setting up his bar on the tourist island of Koh Samui.
It wasn’t long before he was caught up in drugs, taking and selling crystal meth. His story will be featured in National Geographic show Banged Up Abroad, where he said: ‘Months ago I was a postman living an ordinary mundane life. ‘Now, I’d taken a bar over and I’d become a pimp. I didn’t realise what I was getting myself into.’ Customers started coming to his bar just to take meth and if he asked them to stop, Kelly said he would have guns pointed at his head. When the bar next door went up for sale, he tried to sell more of the drug so he could take it over.
He bought 200 grams – a ‘ridiculous amount’ and sold it for £26,000 which was enough to buy the bar. But he was seeing a woman at the time who was actually working undercover for the police.
When armed officers swooped on his bar, they found the drugs and huge amount of money. ‘I read horror stories about Thai prison,’ he told the programme. ‘I never in my own mind thought I’d end up in one.’ Kelly moaned about being put into a cramped cell ‘caged in like an animal’ with other prisoners, some accused of murder.
He said: ‘I knew I wouldn’t be seeing friends or family for a very long time. ‘I wish I could go back to boring old England. I had it all. But that’s the end of it. That’s my dream totally shattered.’ He claims he was attacked by a guard with a baton when a fight broke out in the prison. Three of his teeth were knocked out and he said he thought he was going to die.
Kelly’s fortunes changed when he received a visit from a British embassy official who told him he could return to the UK and serve the rest of his sentence there. He described it as ‘getting out of hell’. Kelly was released in 2014 after serving three years and four months in prison. He now lives near his brother in Watford, Hertfordshire where he has become a pub darts champion.
https://pattayaone.news/en/complains-to ... -sentence/
Do you have sympathy for this man? I have none at all.
- Gaybutton
- Posts: 21788
- Joined: Sat Jul 31, 2010 11:21 am
- Location: Thailand
- Has thanked: 2 times
- Been thanked: 1354 times
Re: Do you have sympathy for this man? I have none at all.
Yes, I feel sympathy for him. I know people who are or were in prison and I can sympathize with all of them.
Re: Do you have sympathy for this man? I have none at all.
I have zero sympathy for that particular man. Anyone from a country like the UK knows 100% what is in store for him if he gets involved in any form of drug dealing. I’ll bet he has no sympathy for those now hooked on his drugs or whose lives he might have ruined. So Thai prisons are hell. What’s new about that? He might have considered that before he decided to get into the drug trade.
I have seen some of these Banged Up Abroad programmes on the Nat Geo channel. Usually they are very fair with the culprits fully admitting their guilt. I doubt if this idiot will be presented in any other way.
I have seen some of these Banged Up Abroad programmes on the Nat Geo channel. Usually they are very fair with the culprits fully admitting their guilt. I doubt if this idiot will be presented in any other way.
Re: Do you have sympathy for this man? I have none at all.
Assuming he had actually comitted the offences, no sympathy
The UK should have left him in the Thai prison. In fact I wouldn't be adverse to an offshoring contract where some of our worst repeat offenders get to spend 10 years or so in a cheap & very grim prison, in return for a modest fee. After all, UK prisons are ridiculously expensive and seem to be too comfortable.
I am a strong believer in having a deterrent and keeping people where they cannot reoffend or breed.
The UK should have left him in the Thai prison. In fact I wouldn't be adverse to an offshoring contract where some of our worst repeat offenders get to spend 10 years or so in a cheap & very grim prison, in return for a modest fee. After all, UK prisons are ridiculously expensive and seem to be too comfortable.
I am a strong believer in having a deterrent and keeping people where they cannot reoffend or breed.
- Gaybutton
- Posts: 21788
- Joined: Sat Jul 31, 2010 11:21 am
- Location: Thailand
- Has thanked: 2 times
- Been thanked: 1354 times
Re: Do you have sympathy for this man? I have none at all.
I don't believe his story for a second. People coming to his bar to take meth and pointing guns at his head if he said no? Does anyone actually swallow that story?
Re: Do you have sympathy for this man? I have none at all.
I don't swallow it. The 'story'' says "if he asked them to stop . . . " implying this was his own belief and might not have been actual fact. Had it said, "when he asked them to stop . . ." I might be more inclined to think about the possibility of swallowing.
-
- Posts: 3820
- Joined: Sat Jul 31, 2010 6:40 pm
- Location: Pattaya
- Been thanked: 38 times
- Contact:
Re: Do you have sympathy for this man? I have none at all.
He sold drugs knowing it was illegal. He got caught and imprisoned. Everyone knows Thai prisons are not health spas. No sympathy from me.
- Undaunted
- Posts: 2580
- Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2016 8:47 am
- Has thanked: 23 times
- Been thanked: 369 times
Re: Do you have sympathy for this man? I have none at all.
Not being the judge I do not see why anyone’s thoughts are relevant.
"In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king"
Re: Do you have sympathy for this man? I have none at all.
The thread title asks a question. All comments are therefore relevant.
- Captain Kirk
- Posts: 707
- Joined: Sun May 22, 2011 2:48 am
- Location: Pattaya
- Been thanked: 50 times
Re: Do you have sympathy for this man? I have none at all.
Ok just watched his story on Nat Geo. Fairly standard stuff, buys his bar, gets greedy and starts to sell drugs. In his own words he "knew he could get a long time in prison" if he got caught - and he did. So why sympathise? He knew the game, rolled the dice and lost. As we say in Scotland - tough titties.