Forget You Had a Daughter: Doing Time in the Bangkok Hilton - Sandra Gregory's Story - Hardcover

Gregory, Sandra; Tierney, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1904132065 ISBN 13: 9781904132066

Publisher: VISION Paperbacks, 2002

Synopsis

"Having lived a successful life in Bangkok that included friends, two teaching jobs, and her own apartment, Sandra Gregory recounts how her life took a terrible turn in 1993 and how she experienced a journey from prison to renewal. While recuperating from dysentery and dengue fever, Gregory ran out of money. With mounting medical bills to pay, she met a heroin addict who offered her $1,000 to smuggle his personal supply of heroin to Japan. It was just enough to pay her medical bills and buy a ticket home, but Gregory was arrested at Bangkok airport before she even boarded the plane. Detailing the four and a half years she spent in the notorious Lard Yao prison, dubbed the Bangkok Hilton, Gregory describes scenes of horrific brutality and suffering before being transferred to a British jail to serve the rest of her 22-year sentence. She tells of her daily fight for survival, of many women who died with no medical care or loved ones around them, and of her acceptance of her guilt and ultimate redemption."

About this title

Synopsis

Incredible real life story - an inspiring and courageous journey from prison to renewal; Using education as a bridge to understanding, Sandra Gregory retraces her steps to prevent people repeating her tragic mistake; Major news coverage - dramatic human interest story; Sandra Gregory served seven years of a 22-year sentence imposed by a court in Thailand, after being caught smuggling 87 grams of heroin through Bangkok airport in 1993. Initially she faced the death penalty. She spent 4-1/2 years in the notorious Lard Yao women's prison - dubbed the Bangkok Hilton - before being repatriated in 1997 to serve the rest of her sentence in Britain. In Lard Yao Gregory shared a cell with 170 prisoners. Space was so cramped she had to pull her knees up to her chest when lying down. An open sewer ran around three sides of the compound where inmates wash clothes and dishes in filthy water. Prison in Britain was no better - she was in a cell 'like a gerbil cage" under a system she portrays as a slow torture - "being kept alive to suffer slowly." She was freed in July 2000 after being granted a royal pardon by the King of Thailand.

Shortly after her capture she wrote to her parents requesting that they must forget that they ever had a daughter - "I am going to ask the hardest and very last thing from you all. I do not want you to forgive me, what I have done is not excusable and above all else I knew better than to do what I did..."

About the Author

Sandra Gregory spent more than 20 years in a British jail after her time in Lard Yao. She was released in 2000 following a pardon from the king of Thailand and now tours schools to warn children of the dangers of drug smuggling. Michael Tierney is a journalist for The Herald.

Edition details

• Publisher: VISION Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1904132065
• ISBN 13: 9781904132066
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272