Sainsbury probe blasted by judge

“IF you have a gun to your head, are you guilty or are you innocent?”

This question from Cassie Sainsbury’s Bogota judge sums up her upcoming challenge, after her plea deal was rejected yesterday because she refused to take full responsibility for trying to smuggle drugs out of Colombia.

The 22-year-old Australian now faces decades in jail if she can’t prove her claims that thugs threatened to kill her family unless she agreed to carry 5.9kg of cocaine on an Avianca flight from El Dorado Airport to London on April 12.

Sainsbury defied legal advice and the urgings of her family and instead scuttled the plea arrangement. Under the deal she would have spent six years in jail, and with good behaviour could have been out in half that time.

Senior Judge Sergio Leon yesterday told the court Sainsbury’s claims meant he could not agree to the plea deal because her accepting responsibility was central to it.

Sainsbury’s mother and fiance had pleaded with her before court to retract her claims of innocence.

For someone who has changed her story so many times — from drug-packed headphones as wedding gifts, to a document-run to South America through Los Angeles and a research trip on behalf of a family cleaning company that never existed — it appears a huge gamble for Sainsbury to pin her freedom on being able to prove her claims of coercion.

If found guilty, she faces 21 to 30 years in jail.

Judge Leon said after his ruling that if Sainsbury proves the threat, she could be sent home, adding: “it is possible that she is innocent”.

Ahead of his ruling yesterday, the judge shed new light on Sainsbury’s arrest and said the prosecutors investigation was “deficient”.

Sainsbury told investigators she received a $10,000 money transfer from Western Union for a trip to Bogota to deliver documents to London for a man named Angelo.

Once in Colombia she had second thoughts, and Angelo responded by sending her photos on the WhatsApp messaging service of her family and warning they would be killed. She said he also threatened her with a gun, so she agreed to try to move what turned out to be the drugs.

Judge Leon said prosecutors had not checked her emails, WhatsApp messages or Western Union to try to support or disprove her claims. They had also not tried to find the mysterious Angelo.

Sainsbury is due in within 90 days. court