Cassandra Sainsbury's prison interview | 60 Minutes Australia

in the heart of Bogota sits the ugly and uninviting women's prison l1 past or in English it means the good shepherd a nod to Colombia's love of Jesus Christ but there's nothing good about this place not that it's obvious when Cassandra Sainsbury enters the room the 22 year olds welcoming smile Cassandra is as inappropriate for the location as it is for her dire situation Cassandra how did it all happen how does a young girl from the back blocks of rural South Australia end up in a Bogota prison I just I found myself in a bad situation and I suppose I couldn't find a way out I was in a place where I didn't know who I could trust who I could talk to and so I sort of just went with what I was told to do it's taken months of negotiations between 60 minutes and Colombian authorities to get the all-clear to sit down with Cassie and face-to-face with her in a tiny and noisy prison meeting room she says not only does she want to explain to Australia how she ended up here but she also wants to apologize for what she's done I'm sorry for the disrespect that of course to Colombia to Australia because obviously I don't want Australia poor traders wanting cocaine and I don't want Colombia poor traders only having cocaine that's the only reason why people come here for me I don't want anyone else in the situation because it's difficult it's not easy what you're apologizing to let people know how bad it is I'm apologizing because I didn't mean to cause any disrespect to anyone I didn't willingly want to commit a crime but at the same time for me I need to apologize because I don't want to come across as I'm okay with what happened here because I'm not okay with it so part of the legal strategy was that from the heart that's from the heart the legal strategy I don't even know where that is Cassandra Sainsbury became cocaine Cassy when she was arrested at beau guitars El Dorado International Airport in April she was stopped at the final immigration check just a few steps from boarding a flight to London security screening detected almost 6 kilos of cocaine hidden inside 18 sets of headphones which were locked in her suitcase Cassie says she was unwittingly duped her original version of events is that she was caught up in this mess after applying for a loan through the website Craigslist but she now says this all came about after she was offered a job as a legitimate international courier at first I didn't even know his drugs I came here I was told that I was going to be basically transporting documents you thought it was papers some sort of documents yes what is a personal courier or something like that yes yes how much did you stand to make ten thousand dollars did some part of you think ten thousand dollars plus air fares halfway around the world was a bit too good to be true yes but I suppose I was at the point where I needed money so I thought okay I'll I'll do it but Cassie in this day and age of fast couriers jet Express and didn't you for one moment think hang on a minute this could be a bit suss yes it did cross my mind and I'd said that it crossed my mind it wasn't but it was a point of choice I'll never know and it was quite like I was just about to accept a job but I had outstanding bills I had everything so I'm sort of just my as I took the risk and now I'm here but it's a lesson learned definitely it sounds hard to believe but Cassie says she accepted the job even though she had little idea who she was working for she and her new boss only communicated via email and the occasional phone call she had no way to verify who he was nor it seems was she inclined to find out how did they set it up when I said okay I basically a week a week and a half later and see of diets Henry and the first one I received treated for 90 days first one was to Brazil and for me no I'm not going to Brazil and then the second one was to London I thought okay I like London I want to go to London so it's not necessarily a bad thing and then the day that I was supposed to fly out Maya Tina has changed to Bogota and for me I had no idea what boa to us I mean I googled her and I came with Colombia and that's when I was like a Colombia can't necessarily be a great thing and so yeah so you didn't back out that's Dutch know to get to Colombia cassie boarded a flight in Adelaide to Guangzhou China from there she flew to Los Angeles and then on to Bogota who paid for the plane ticket I don't know directly what do you mean I don't know the name I mean not okay I don't know if the person's real so there there's a name on on the itinerary but I don't know if it's real it could be fake I don't know the person when Cassie landed in Colombia she was told to come and stay here the inter Bogota it's a small hotel well away from the tourist strip used mainly by local business people this is where she says she met the mastermind behind the smuggling operation and What did he say his name was Angela Angela I didn't get a last name means very very vague on details sort of there was a few details he sort of he said it was had politician relations to Brazil and everything else and that he was quite high up in politics but I didn't spend a lot of time we didn't divide in feel comfortable did he say that he was the one who set this whole thing up yes so as far as you were concerned he's the kingpin on her fourth day in Bogota Cassie claims tensions rose between herself and the mystery man Angelo when it became clear she would be transporting drugs not documents just when things started to slowly slowly unwind and I started to say I don't want any part of this because I didn't come here to do anything illegal didn't come here to risk my life and I suppose I argued quite a lot with this situation and I probably created it worse to myself within the next day I started looking for ways to get home I say going to travel agents I started finding trying to find ways to get home and I received a very nasty phone call basically saying what are you doing why are you there and I just said I'm going home I said I don't want any part of this I'll find my own way home what exactly did this Angelou tell you basically told me that I'd if I didn't go through and do the job and take the package that my mom my sister and my partner they would be killing if you believe Cassie it's at this point things got out of control she says she took Angelo's threats seriously because he supplied her with surveillance photos of her mother Lisa sister Kayla and fiancé Scott back in Adelaide I received a photo of Scott on a friend leaving the gym I received a photo of my sister getting her youngest kid out of the car and I received a photo of my mum getting out of the car and that's what that hit home quite hard and that was when I was like what do I do all these photos what were they emails or were they on they are through whatsapp what's up did he tell you that he had connections in Australia basically that he has people working for him everywhere Cassie says she was now trapped and became even more frightened when Angelo came to her hotel room to pack her suitcase with cocaine I didn't know exactly what was in I didn't know I didn't know as headphones I didn't know I wasn't allowed to look I wasn't that touch it was packed in my suitcase it was locked and that was it this same guy then bought you a ticket to London from here I was told to basically follow through the flat pan which was to go to Hong Kong and basically take it to a some place so the plan was to get off in Hong Kong and give the bags the cocaine to somebody else so I was basically told to go into an address and a Colombian man would meet me there he said he's my friends we Colombian his Colombian that was that was it and when were they going to give you the $10,000 supposedly when they received the package little did Cassie realize that even before she checked in at Bogota Airport attempting to leave the country with a suitcase full of cocaine her complicated flight route and the method of it had drawn the attention of the US Drug Enforcement Agency which then tipped off its Colombian counterparts Cassandra Sainsbury's attempt at smuggling drugs was over before it began the security video at that moment that you were arrested you don't look stressed or I'm Juli worried I was extremely worried I think when I was first arrested it didn't hit me obviously I had handcuffs on I was being searched everything by suppose it hit me when I got back to the police station that's when it was like hitting a brick wall officers uncovered the five point eight kilos of cocaine with a street value of almost two million dollars concealed in 18 sets of headphones but when I was arrested I think I saw one of I was in shock and so hang on you knew it was in your bag yes but I didn't know exactly what was in I didn't know I didn't know as headphones I didn't know because I didn't know of the quantity I didn't I didn't know house hidden I didn't know anything in paulownia wasn't packaged as her world imploded cassie sent a series of panicked messages to her mother lisa in australia but remarkably failed to mention she'd been forced into it because of the threats against her family and fiance not once in any of those messages do you mention that you'd been threatened or that your family had been threatened why not because at that point I didn't know if I could talk about what happened because I was told that everybody is involved there was police involved there was airport staff involved and so if I spoke about what happened I'd be in a lot of trouble but then I as soon as I knew that I could trust people that's when I told them what happened but it was your mum and we're talking about surely you can trust your mum yes I trust my mum but I also I was worried that she would go to the wrong people but the fact that I received photos of them while they were doing normal activities in Adelaide that for me said they weren't safe Judge John Hyde Rose amber ro was presiding on the day of Cassie's arrest we spoke with him during our first trip to Colombia in May after Cassie's story first broke when Cassandra first appeared before you was she nervous at the start she was very calm but the change when we opened her bags cuando su Pookie's once she learned she was going to jail she became very upset critically despite being interrogated for more than four hours she also failed to mention to the judge Angelo's threats and that again comes back to the fact that I didn't know who I could trust would you're standing in front of a judge there were police all around you and you don't mention it once can you see why that's I understand why it comes across 'as changed her story or she's making up a story to protect herself but it honestly came back down to for me I was I was scared I was scared senseless it's an important point because her entire future now depends on proving those threats are real in the weeks after her arrest Cassie's Colombian lawyer Orlando Herren managed to negotiate a very generous plea deal if she took full responsibility sole responsibility for her actions Cassie would be sentenced to just six years in jail probably out within two but at the last minute she reneged when you talk to the judge and you failed to take full responsibility you effectively blew up that plea deal when I spoke to the judge for me I didn't know the judge what wasn't aware of that and so yes in a way so you misinterpreted what your legal team was saying yes and but Cassie that that could be disastrous and I suppose I'll find out in six months what it means that's now all or nothing with a plea deal now off the table Cassandra's fate will be decided by a single judge if her lawyers can provide any evidence she and her family were threatened she'll walk free but if not she'll be sentenced to at least 21 years and four months behind bars is there evidence Harden's yes the photos that you talked about on whatsapp mm-hmm emails texts are they on your phone they're on your phone but get this in another useful twist in Cassie story she's told prosecutors she can't remember the patent password that unlocks her phone it means no one can open her instant messaging app whatsapp and verify of the threatening messages and photos from the elusive Angelou really do exist is it true that you've forgotten the password it's very true I haven't used that for nearly six months I'm not gonna remember a patent are you serious you've forgotten the password yes I mean you think about it well I am thinking in fact I'm sure I don't know another millennial who has forgotten their password I'm sure if you were in prison for five months you would forget it don't you think that's an incredibly convenient thing to have happened pretty much if I knew the password and I've told my lawyer I'd give it but that's all that is I if I can't remember I've got nothing to give them coming up Jesse's past in South Australia catches up with them and what a poor keep is going on here his name and finally the biggest bombshell again there's somebody close to you encourage you to go that's next on 60 minutes behind the walls of ba guitars biggest female prison Kassandra Sainsbury can't escape a nightmare there are days that I'm extremely bad for me like I'll get a phone call and that's he I'll cry for the rest of the day she and her legal team must now prove she only attempted to smuggle 5.8 kilos of cocaine out of Colombia because a mystery man named Angelo threatened to kill her family if she didn't if they fail this will be Cassie's home for at least the next 21 years and four months I'm here but I don't know when it's gonna end I don't even if it's 20 years that I get sent in I I know okay I'm gonna be here for 20 years that's when it ends but for me right now I don't know when it ends in two days Cassie will appear in court again to hear for the first time the evidence the prosecution has against her but the case won't go to trial for at least another six months a full year after her arrest the 22 year old insists she has the evidence she needs to be set free my family and partner will be killed there's just one problem it's all on her mobile phone and as unlikely as it sounds she can't remember how to unlock it so let me get this straight we're sitting here behind prison walls you're facing minimum 21 years and four months and the only evidence that can guarantee you walk out that front gate is on a phone that you say you've forgotten the password to I've been trying to remember it but that's all I can do is try and remember it but of course if those images are not on the phone if those messages are not there and if you're telling a lies then all that evaporates doesn't haven't got any defense at all there is still a defense but that's up to a later class EES lawyer here in Bogota has told us any chance of proving her innocence we'll rely very heavily on her ability to convince the court that she's an honest and credible person that's a challenge not helped by the fact that her case has been mired in misinformation and lies from the very beginning from the moment of her arrest there's been one question that's proven difficult to answer just who is Cassandra Sainsbury in South Australia there's been no shortage of allegations about a young woman overly ambitious to break the cycle of debt in which she seemed trapped and if you believe the stories it almost makes sense that Cassie would attempt her foolish get-rich-quick trip to Columbia she volunteered to look after the kabali tennis club's finances in September 2002 Trank accounts for online transactions accusations of deceit go back to 2015 locals from Yorktown's say she stole money from the Tennis Club but as always Cassie has an answer there's an affidavit filed with your town police that claims you stole three thousand one hundred and sixty-seven dollars did you steal that money no and honestly for me I mean the person that filed the complaint is actually my ex-boyfriends uncle and you know the breakup was was not nice well you were treasurer of that club is there any money missing and then there's the gym cassie set up in 2015 and claims she left behind unpaid rent when the business failed again Cassie disputes it and her family says the rent arrears were paid there's a lot of people here that list is starting to stack up and there they're either all wrong and you're right or there's a few things that you're not telling us there's a few things that you're hiding for whatever reasons that you choose to write you're standing by your story as far as you're concerned all those people so far either made a mistake or have singled you out pretty much your sister hmm said that the trip was at least in part to promote your personal training business but that wasn't true wasn't no it's not completely true and when your fiancee was asked about this trip he said that you helped manage a commercial cleaning business with both national and international clients that wasn't true either wasn't know basically that there was a complete misunderstanding a lot of poor keep ours going on here his name but perhaps the most dubious chapter in Cassie's past and the one that's raised the most eyebrows is the secret double life she was leading in the months up to her arrest in May we revealed her clandestine career as a prostitute at club 220 a brothel near Penrith in Sydney's West according to her working colleagues she would fly in from Adelaide for shifts and used the pseudonym Claudia she would fly in and sometimes she would stay for a week or sometimes just for two or three or four days this woman says she worked alongside Cassie at the brothel she claimed fellow sex workers were stunned to learn of her arrest in April and even more shocked to see her mum supporting her in Bogota because Cassie had told them she was dead I did like her now I think maybe she's a compulsive liar and a scammer and conniving despite multiple sources confirming Cassie was a sex worker as well as this revealing photo Cassie is adamant it's all aligned I wasn't a prostitute you weren't a prostitute no you never worked at Club 220 I did some reception like that but I wasn't a prostitute why would some of the other working girls say that you were I don't know that's probably something you'd have to ask them for me obviously a lot of people have had a lot of digs me well I've been in prison because I can't defend myself but well this is your chance no I I I'm not a prostitute there was some work relating with club t2i but it wasn't prostitution well it isn't brothel I know it's a brothel but it doesn't necessarily mean that I'm a prostitute so for for five months you were what fly-in fly-out receptionist so I was there in the period of the four or five months that I wasn't there every every week every day why would a business in Penrith play for a simple receptionist to fly and fly out I think struggling to have receptionists now I'm struggling a lot there with that sort of thing so you're supposed fellow coworkers also said that you told them and in fact took money from them that your mum was sick on the strength of her being in hospital and then dying is that true no that's not true either you know why would they make that up but just as the interview was becoming a stalemate Cassie let's slip a vital clue about how she really did end up in this situation honestly right now with a brothel there's not a lot I can discuss right now because everything that happened before and here it's all linked in my case and that revelation of a link between Cassie's arrest and her Sydney connections should be of interest to the Australian Federal Police it's also a suggestion which is completely at odds with earlier claims she was coerced into being a drug mule after applying for a job on the Internet how did you get hooked up with him in the first place there's something I can't discuss the moment it's somebody close to you encourage you to do it I feel meeting my family now is it somebody you know no not not no no but sort of know that make sense so it was somebody from the brothel I'm not saying that we got you involved in this I haven't said that I'm just saying that let's [Music] despite all her contradictions cassie maintains she is telling the truth and hopes that she'll be vindicated by the Colombian courts were you ever really threatened Cassie yes are you just making it up no and just because you know it's been said in court that right now there's no proof doesn't mean that isn't proved to be found what about people who are watching this program who may form the opinion that there's just this tissue of lies in this whole story how do you respond to that how do you deal with that I think for me until people know completely what happened they shouldn't be forming opinions they're not you know if you were in this situation you wouldn't want people coming around saying she did this she did that that's what she's doing she's lying she you know she's a hooker she's a drug addict know if you're not in this situation if don't know what's happening then you know have an opinion but don't don't put it out there when you don't know if it's right for now cocaine Cassie the nation's highest profile overseas prisoner is focused on her next court appearance this Tuesday and stealing herself for the very real possibility she could be spending the best part of her life in the worst possible place obviously I'm hoping to go home I'm hoping to get on with my life I know my lawyer is positive sorry that's a good thing for me so right sort of 50/50 is that what you're giving yourself 5050 yes weren't you tempted though just to take full responsibility for the whole thing yeah just say look I just got really greedy I was just really stupid that was the plan for most of it I can't believe you outwardly so calm about this I've been here for five months I have come to terms with it I think come to terms with what the possibility of staying here for another 20 years if it happens then it happens and I'm just gonna have to deal with it I'm not gonna argue against Colombia if that's what the judge decides to give me then that's what I get because at the end of the day the drug was so obviously in my suitcase and in my name how could I say no that's that's not mine well you know is there hello I'm Liam Bartlett thanks for watching so keep up with the latest from 60 minutes Australia make sure you subscribe to our Channel you can also download the 9 now app for full episodes and other exclusive 60 minutes content

Channel: undefined

Views: 1,103,483

Rating: 4.380311 out of 5

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Charles Wooley, Tara Brown, Liam Bartlett, Allison Langdon, Tom Steinfort, Ellen Fanning, Peter Overton, Karl Stefanovic, Ray Martin, Peter Stefanovic, Jana Wendt, Jeff McMullen, Jennifer Byrne, Mike Munro, Richard Carleton, Tracey Curro, Paul Barry, Peter Harvey, Michael Usher, Ross Coulthart, George Negus, Ian Leslie, Gerald Stone, Sarah Abo, Cocaine Cassie, Cassandra Sainsbury, Colombia

Id: wGMx2HXlx_o

Length: 28min 52sec (1732 seconds)

Published: Thu May 16 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/kingcuda13]

For anyone looking for an update, seems even though she rejected the plea deal - she was still sentenced to 6 years and is already eligible for parole to be released April 2020. However due to prison breaks, poisoning in the prison, and corruption - the chief stepped down, delaying her parole hearing.

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7542953/Australian-drug-smuggler-Cocaine-Cassie-Sainsburys-bid-freedom-delayed-prison-break.html