‘I didn’t have a long-term plan, just a one-way ticket out’

ON DUNGANNON “I was desperate to escape my hometown of Dungannon — to get away from a complicated relationship with my absent father, from an abusive boyfriend and from the unrest and violence that still blights lives in places like this.

I didn’t have a long-term plan, just a one-way ticket out.”

ON DECIDING TO BECOME A DRUG SMUGGLER

He was asking me to collect a consignment of illegal drugs, yet I didn’t think too much about my reply. It must seem odd that I was even considering it but, right then, drugs were a normal part of daily life and I barely considered them to be illegal. I was a young woman living far away from home, my family — and from reality. ‘Go on then, Davey,’ I said. ‘Why not? I’ll do it.’

ON NOT KNOWING WHERE PERU WAS

People will have their own opinions of me for everything that’s happened, and what I’m going to admit now is only going to give them more fuel. But the sorry truth is I had no idea where Peru was. No clue. I thought it was another Spanish town.

ON DRUG SMUGGLING PARTNER MELISSA REID

“As soon as I met Melissa, I knew she was cocky, confident and a bit of a know-it-all. She obviously got a kick out of being the one in charge and I was happy to leave her to it.”

ON ANCON PRISON “Ancon is one of South America’s maximum-security jails. Drug abuse, hunger and violence are rife. Mosquitoes are everywhere.

The sanitation is unspeakable.”

ON PRISON ATTACK “‘Michaella, look out!’ I turn my head just in time to see the blade — a kitchen knife, gleaming, unmistakably sharp and destined for my head. I freeze and close my eyes. Stupid, but it’s instinct. I’m terrified. Then there’s a scream, a blood-curdling one. But thankfully it doesn’t come from me and I open my eyes just in time to see my would-be killer wrestled to the floor by a fellow prisoner.”