Jailed in Egypt but my girl is only guilty of being naive...
Family fears for ‘delicate’, home-loving shop worker in notorious prison
THE devastated dad of a British woman jailed in Egypt has told of his fear for his “innocent-hearted” daughter as he begged for her to be moved from her hellhole prison.
Neville Plummer said daughter Laura, 33, does not even swear and “hates druggies”, and he fears for her safety in the notorious Qena jail. Mr Plummer, 70, wants her to be moved from the facility in Luxor to one in Cairo, which is easier to get to from overseas – and has called for Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to intervene on her behalf. The dad said: “My daughter is in extreme danger. We want her moved immediately, not in a few weeks’ time when it could be too late.” He told how his family’s nightmare began in October when he got a text from Laura saying: “Dad, please ring me… I’m in trouble.” Shop worker Laura, known to her dad as Coo Coo, had been detained after flying to Hurghada with 290 Tramadol tablets for Egyptian partner Omar Caboo, to help him with his bad back.
The drug is available legally here but not in Egypt. Laura from Hull was jailed for three years on Boxing Day.
Mr Plummer, who has six children including Laura with ex-wife Roberta, said: “We’ve always been a law-abiding family. None of them ever been in any trouble, they don’t mix with bad people.
“Laura stood out as the baby of the family, even though she wasn’t.
“She had such a simple, innocent outlook on life. She says silly things that you’d expect a 10-year-old to say.
“I don’t mean she’s simple, just innocent. Even now she wants to forgive the Egyptians. She’s not that type of girl, she has a forgiving nature.
“The only thing she hated were druggies. If they came into her store it made her sick. I can’t bear thinking of her in that prison with the rapists, murderers, prostitutes and jihadis.
“She’s so delicate. That girl was born with an innocent heart and she will have an innocent heart as long as she lives.”
A home-loving creature of habit, every evening Laura would return to her mum’s house after work at the Quiz clothing shop in Hull.
She would change into her pyjamas and dressing gown and at exactly 6.58pm she would put the kettle on and then settle down with a cuppa in her favourite armchair for her beloved Emmerdale.
By 9pm she would be tucked up in her single bed under the same dolphin clock she has had on the wall since she was 10.
Brother James, 31, said: “She’s in bed by 9pm every night because she’s so frightened about being late for work.
“She was the same when we went to school. She loves her routine and has never done anything wrong in her life.”
She was such an innocent that her dad was uneasy about her travelling to a country as dangerous as Egypt.
Laura had met pool lifeguard Omar on a previous trip to the country with a friend, and had continued to visit alone
as her long-distance relationship continued.
Retired freight company boss Mr Plummer told of the moment he got her heartbreaking message after she flew out earlier this year.
He said: “I was in the kitchen making a cup of tea and I came back to watch television when I noticed a missed call from Laura and the text message.
“When I tried to call her back four minutes later her phone was turned off. It had been taken by the Egyptian police.”
The next news came when a man phoned to say Laura had been detained “on very serious drug trafficking charges”.
Mr Plummer said: “When she was stopped at the airport she’d been getting her luggage.
“They took her suitcase away and when they came back (with the tablets) said: ‘Are these yours?’ She straight away said, ‘Yes’.
“They told her, ‘They are not allowed, they are a banned drug’. She thought they were joking.
“She’d had nothing to hide, in her eyes. She packed the painkillers in a seethrough polythene bag and put them right at the top of her suitcase. “They were the last thing she had packed as she’d nearly forgotten them. I wish she had.” The next day a man claiming to be a lawyer said he was outside the prison where Laura was held. He told Mr Plummer to call back in five minutes, promising: “You can speak to your daughter.” The dad said: “When I did I could hear Laura crying. She was saying ‘Dad, dad. What’s happening to me?’ “I told her to stop panicking and we were trying to help her. “She kept saying, ‘I haven’t done
She’s in extreme danger. Move her now – in a few weeks it could be too late NEVILLE PLUMMER FATHER OF JAILED BRIT LAURA
anything wrong. I don’t know what I’ve been accused of.’
“It broke my heart hearing her like that and not being able to fix it.”
Laura’s mother Roberta, 64, and her brother and sisters flew out to be by her side.
Brother James said of seeing her in Egypt: “She was in with a lot of children and she was drawing pictures for them.
“She’s always been good at art. Everyone wanted to spend time with Laura. She’s never had any enemies.”
A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesman said yesterday: “We are continuing to provide assistance to Laura and her family following the court ruling in Egypt and our embassy is in regular contact with the Egyptian authorities.”
The FCO confirmed it was trying to find out if a jail transfer was possible.