Cassie’s inside story

Family wanted $1m to tell all on accused

CASSIE Sainsbury’s family asked for $1 million to tell the story of the 22-year-old’s jailing in Colombia on drugs charges.

Details have emerged of just how much money the South Australian’s family hoped to make from her ordeal, while Sainsbury remains in the wing of Bogota’s El Buen Pastor prison known as “narco patio”.

The wing was raided yesterday afternoon by prison offi- cers at the tail-end of a busy day that saw a distressed Sainsbury move to a new cell with another accused drug trafficker who speaks English.

“This morning they moved her from another floor and a different cell after a request was made to the guards,” a source inside the jail said, adding that Sainsbury was struggling with being one of the few foreigners in the jail.

“They (other prisoners) saw a national news report on Cassie and it made Cassie very sad. The other inmates were surprised the news report thought she was guilty. They were saying, ‘she has such a sweet face, she looks so innocent’.”

Sainsbury’s wing was the subject of a prolonged search yesterday by guards and sniffer dogs, which some inmates blamed on the publication of a picture of Sainsbury and another inmate, taken on a mobile phone inside a cell on patio five.

“They’ve brought male guards in, which only happens when there are disturbances, so fights or rioting, or if they are doing searches,” a separate jail source said.

“Everything feels tense today.

“That photo was leaked yesterday and that shouldn’t have happened.”

Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes has now signed a contract with Sainsbury’s mother Lisa Evans and sister Khala Sainsbury, who are expected to travel soon to Bogota to be reunited with the former personal trainer, who was arrested on April 11 with almost 6kg of cocaine in her luggage at El Dorado International Airport.

Sainsbury denies trying to smuggle home the drugs, worth more than $2 million, telling police, her lawyers and family that she thought the 18 plastic-wrapped packages she included in her luggage at the last minute were a bargain batch of headphones to give away at her upcoming wedding.

While the figure agreed between 60 Minutes and Sainsbury’s family is not clear, a source close to negotiations said it was “eye-watering”.