CANNABIS TEACHER TELLS OF GULF PRISON ORDEAL

A headteacher serving four years for possessing a tiny amount of
cannabis has spoken of her terrifying treatment in an overcrowded Gulf
jail. Lynn Majakas sleeps on the concrete floor of her tiny cell
alongside three other prisoners and has been forced to witness fellow
inmates being flogged.

The 44-year-old was led away in leg irons from a court in the United
Arab Emirates after being sentenced a fortnight ago for having 3
grammes of cannabis. She said she had aged "20 years in a day".

Her words relayed through her mother, Gladys Barr, who visits her in
the spartan Wathba Jail in Abu Dhabi, Ms Majakas said that many of her
possessions had been stolen.

"After I was sentenced all I could do was lie on my bed and move
around slowly, just trying to get my head round what had happened,"
she said.

"Inmates tried consoling me because they were all so confident that I
would be acquitted. It is starting to sink in now and all I can do is
read, write and cry."

The former head of Bedelsford school in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey,
was convicted along with colleague Ian Bamling, 30, after the drug,
enough for two joints, was found in a camera bag given to them by a
friend.

The couple have denied they were responsible for packing the cannabis
and Mr Bamling's friend in England even wrote to the court explaining
the cannabis was his.

"I miss the children that I teach, I miss my family and I miss
England," she said.

"I miss not chatting to my colleagues at school break and feeling the
teamwork and having a biscuit and a cup of tea

"Right now I just don't know who to turn to."

Both Britons' mothers are in the country to appeal for clemency but
have so far been unable to get an audience with any government officials