JUNKIES DAMNED TO HORROR OF THAI JAIL

DOOMED Perth junkie Holly Amanda Deane-Johns and co-accused Robert Sydney
Halliwell had their worst fears realised when they were sent to Thai jails
on heroin-trafficking charges yesterday.

The pair were taken from police holding cells for narcotic cases and driven
to South Bangkok Criminal Court where they were ordered to await trial in
custody.

Ms Deane-Johns, 29, looking emaciated, appeared in court handcuffed and
barefooted and chained to Mr Halliwell, a 55-year-old diabetic from New
South Wales who weighs at least 150kg.

The court ordered Ms Deane-Johns be detained in the women's correctional
institution in Bangkok.

She can expect more cramped living conditions, worse food, worse hygiene
and more intense competition from other prisoners than in the holding cells
near Bangkok International Airport where she has been since August 21.

She will have to pay for a prison uniform and may have to sleep on a stone
instead of a wooden floor.

"I'm resigned to going to prison because that can't be changed," Ms
Deane-Johns told The West Australian in Bangkok before yesterday's court
appearance.

"You just have to accept your fate and get on with it the best you can and
if you don't it's only going to make your life hard."

Ms Deane-Johns said she endured withdrawal symptoms known locally as
"screaming red" when she was coughing and vomiting blood for 12 sleepless
days and nights after her arrest. "I finally got some pills for it from the
Australian Embassy doctor but they took another two days to get here," she
said.

She wants to hire a high-powered Thai criminal lawyer who suggested a $5000
fee for a guilty plea and $25,000 for not guilty. "He has yet to see our
case in detail," Ms Deane-Johns said. "And we don't know whether we will be
able to raise the funds."

Thai courts have a reputation for severe punishment for those found guilty
at trial as opposed to those who confess to crimes.

Ms Deane-Johns said she was confident she would not be executed if
convicted but admitted she faced an uncertain future.

But she blamed no one.

She served five years in an Australian jail for drug offences in the early
1990s and went to Thailand to live with her boyfriend in 1997, hoping to
get married.

Her boyfriend was detained in Melbourne on drug charges just before her arrest.

Ms Deane-Johns said she saw no future in Thailand and was returning to
Australia when caught posting home white powder, allegedly to finance her
return.

The West Australian took her soft drinks, milk, body lotion and snacks on a
visit to the holding cells on Sunday when she asked for sanitary wear which
The West Australian provided yesterday on humanitarian grounds.

She and Mr Halliwell had separate cells measuring 5m by 5m. Her horror of
Thai jail cell had between five and 15 detainees and his up to 40.

Toilets were a hole in the ground and baths were water scooped from a
trough and poured over the body.

They were locked in their cells all day and the electric lights were
switched on 24 hours. There was no library or phone.

Mr Halliwell said that, before yesterday's court appearance, he had ant
attacks on his feet in the holdings cells and feared gangrene could set in
because of his diabetes. He objected in court to going to prison but was
overruled.

Australian interpreter Susan Aldous, a volunteer welfare worker in Bangkok
prisons, said the courts had ruled there was no option.

Mr Halliwell was sent to Bumbut men's jail, adjacent to the women's prison,
where some cells had three storeys of bunks, each just 45cm wide.

"If you don't get a bunk and you are sleeping on the floor you lose your
spot if you wake at night to go to the toilet - people can't sleep on their
backs, they sleep on their sides," Ms Aldous said.

SHE said the prison system was controlled by inmates and Ms Deane-Johns and
Mr Halliwell would have to learn to adjust.

Mr Halliwell said he had jumped bail from Sydney and fled to Thailand in
1976 after he was charged with possessing 500g of heroin. He had been an
addict since 1974.

He left behind a wife and daughter living on the Sunshine Coast but kept in
touch with them. He had another child by a Thai prostitute, who was
murdered over a bad transaction.

He and Ms Deane-Johns complained that prison authorities had prevented them
from seeing two Thais who had visited them twice.

He said he required medication for his diabetes and had received it
erratically. His legs look red and raw with the colour gone from his feet
and toes.

Mr Halliwell also claimed to have a double hernia. He was not able to carry
his belongings up two flights of stairs to courtroom 18.

The pair are charged jointly with trafficking and possessing 140g of
heroin. Investigators say four witnesses remain to be interviewed for the
prosecution. The case was remanded for a further 12 days to September 30.

According to court documents, investigators want to test the handwriting
and criminal records of the two suspects.

Thai authorities insist on following the letter of the law because of the
seriousness of the case and the big penalties.

The investigating team is opposing bail.