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Melissa Reid, from Glasgow, was arrested with Connolly, of Dungannon in Northern Ireland, last month after being caught allegedly attempting to sneak out a total of 11 kilos of the drug.
Reid, 20, maintains that gangsters had forced her to carry the drugs, but told the newspaper she would be pleading guilty.
“I am really scared about what I am about to do but I am also relieved that there could be a light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.
“I’m now coming to terms with the fact I am so far away from my family. This is real.
“After a lot of thought and advice from my lawyer I am going to go in front of the judge and admit I was in possession of the drugs and that I went to Peru to pick up drugs to take to Spain — I am willing to plead guilty to that.”
But she insisted that she acted “under duress”.
If convicted the women face between eight to 15 years in jail.
According to the newspaper, the guilty plea could see Reid’s sentence cut to six years and eight months.
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Here’s what i don’t get, these 2 are big news, but we don’t hear much about the other Irish and British women caught in Ibiza earlier this week on drugs offences.
They wont be “Big” in the news for long because their just drug smugglers nothing special about them then any other drug mule
And they were caught in Ibiza, not Peru…
Because this story has more of a Midnight Express feel to it, way more dramatic. Press love this.
The girl in Ibiza was caught with 11 xtc and 10 LCD supposedly. The one in Peru was caught with 11 kg of coke, fairly massive difference.
And the one in Peru was “missing” and had a social media search going for her which gained intrest.
10 LCDs wow, you’d think they would’ve used plasma or HD
I was In tescos in Jarvis street earlier an I came across ‘share a coke with Melissa’ then I spotted over at the other side of the shelf ‘share a coke with Michaela’ I put the 2 of them together, they didn’t look right separated.
Wonder if she’ll stiff the other one for a lighter sentence now?
She can’t , drugs were split & in both their bags .
I’m sorry but its obvious they’re guilty.why would they plead otherwise
To get a shorter sentence nelly
Do you believe they’re innocent?
She has they were both together so if one pleads guilty the other hasn’t a chance. Own opinion they are both guilty anyway,.
Guilty as hell
2 drug traffickers, end of .throw the book at both of them.They are a link in the death of thousands of people and even junkies
No way in a million years, would I plead guilty to a crime I did not commit!
GUILTY!!
Absolutely not both were in it for the easy money . I hope they get the maximum sentence they are as bad as the ones who sell on the misery of drugs. Show them no mercy. How many addicts and deaths would they have been responsible for if they had succeeded. They got caught red handed lock them up and throw away the key !!!!!
Depends on the legal, judicial system. Foreign country which doesn’t have our innocent till proven guilty way (eg France) with threat of lots of years in a hell hole compared to couple of years in a “cushy” nick might be a hard call.
Having said that these 2 had an expenses paid trip from Ibiza days roaming around Peru and were caught with a load of kit, admitted that they had been threatened so knew too well oor had a good idea what they were carrying and could have spoke up at any time.
During their wandering in Peru had lots of chances to go to police.
These two are not a pair of stupi, lovesick teenies conned into taking a package through for their new boyfriends mummy.
They knew before they left Ibiza ( and have admitted so) what they were expected to do.
No sympathy whatsoever.
Are “junkies” not people?
The moral high ground can be a lonely place if up there on your own for 25 years. 8 years with prob parole in 4 a lot more attractive.
The other one will follow suit too. They’ll be back selling their stories and doing the chat show rounds in no time.
If she’s any sense she will
You just know she will be on the late late show
Hope they give back the money being raised in their localities for the defence… Telling people they were innocent…
They’ll be out in time to start a career in granny porn.
Kinda throws a spanner into the works for Connolly’s not guilty case!
She’ll have to do the same now, or her friend may be called on to testify against her.
I’ll bet every schmuck who’s been caught at the airport with drugs has given the same story. Some guy was holding a gun to my head and was going to kill my poodle if I didn’t deliver. Sure the guards will believe them. I mean 2 nice girls from Holy Catholic Ireland…
Just wait until they untie her bun and find another 5 kilos.
My bet is that this is the story they were told to tell, and they actually believed it would work. The drugs were found way too easily, it does sound like they may have been set up, but I doubt a gun was held to their heads.
Drugs are for mugs!
Winners don’t take drugs!
I think you’ll find they do …….
And mugs are for tea!
Tea is for biscuits…..
Mugs are for coffee!
But coffee keeps you up all night!
Lol :-)
Have you never read a newspaper or seen the Six 1 News?
So does Viagra ……..
lol most sports people use them to win
That scrawny, birdfaced Nordie really grinds my gears as well.
Then stop reading online news articles about her case. Problem solved.
I was hoping there would be some more info on Phil Collins criminal mastermind nephew or their charismatic, roided up, one eyed, too old to be doing this shit, living it up in Ibeefa mate, friend.
Have to agree, don’t like Gerry Adams either :)
You shouldn’t get a reduced sentence for pleading guilty,you should get an increased sentence for not admitting to your crime
No no no. If you introduce that then you are prejudicing those who are innocent. Like birmingham 6. Your getting rid of innocent til proven guilty
You are assuming guilt on everyone then.
She is pleading guilty because she is guilty. Simple as.
What??? I thought they were innocent! Didn’t see that coming
It’s all fun & games until you’re banged up in a Peru jail
Am sick of that Scottish bird with the big, bloated, orange face on her.
Innocent to Peruvian guilty…. See what I done ther…
being guilty is a good reason for pleading guilty
Love how the British media claim both of them are British when one of them plainly isn’t; until it comes time to raise money for Michaella, in which case she’s Irish again and we are the fools pulling money out of our hungry arses to benefit some drug smuggling, drug dealing whoore.
It works both ways. I’ve seen some Irish papers run the Irish and British girls, only to start recently reporting the story as the ‘two British girls’.
I didn’t pay for her, did you?
Why are we still dealing with this.Both are drug dealers n were cought red handed.Their sentence isn’t goin to be long enough in my opinion.They get locked up for 3 years and when they are released they will make a fortune from books, tv interviews etc so I wouldn’t feel sorry for them.If the laws in Ireland were so strict them we mightn’t have the epidemic we have now!!
She thinks it will mean that she will get about 2 years which she would have done waiting for her trial to come. It will be interesting if the judge decides to throw the book at her and give her about 10.
Their general poxy attitude and sense of entitlement will hopefully come back to haunt them.
Ridiculous if they get anything less than 10, considering the sentences other people, who have smuggled less, have received.
15years from now they will be on a tv program called, banged up abroad, shame and then fame..
Tv3 are wetting themselves already
It’s survival at any price now. I think they kinda thought they were rock stars when they were first caught with their airy fairy demeanour! On the bright side they’re made for life with the book deals they’ll strike on return…if they make it back that is…Ooooo scary!!
Some bangers on the Scottish one. That picture doesn’t do her justice.
Regardless of what they plead both will have drug convictions that will haunt them for the rest of their lives,enjoy girls you both deserve all that’s coming your way:-)
they’ll be smoking those pink cigars soon enough, courtesy of the prison wardens! :D
Regardless of how short the prison sentence is its not going to be easy for them. I think a lot of people would rather do 10 years here than even 2 years there, completely different environment and prison conditions
Have you read about the goings on in mountjoy this week? Peru looks a better bet. As for selling the story: wouldn’t this have something to do with ‘proceeds from crime’?
I think Peru would be far worse, in mountjoy you have a bed and access to healthcare, there u would be lucky to find space to sleep and considering there two white European girls prisoners will know they have access to money, and money rules everything in there, so they can be easily become targets, and a lot of the prisoners are infected with HIV and other diseases which most of the time aren’t even treated, so il think I’d rather be in prison here, saying all that they should have known the risks involved so its there own fault
Guilty & stupid
Wake up to the facts ….drugs kill ….and ruin family life.
So does alcohol and ciggerettes. Do you support the prohibition of them and locking up all bartenders and throwing away the key?
I’m sick of listening to people spew shite about drugs when they actually know absolutely nothing about them
well Robert
my family has been blighted by drugs, 2 brothers dead from drugs, My 1 st son killed by a driver high on coke, my second son on drugs started on E…. died on heroin … so i am sick of people defending……… Get real drugs kill.
Yes drugs kill and destroy familys so wise up people.
Michaela’s family expected to pitch in for her legal costs, why? Guilty as sin. Tough shite.
What’s up with the weird ass hairdo though?
What sickens me is that they know they’ll make a mint when they get oit. That is just absolutely wrong. And shsme on the filth who’ll pay them
Eh, no. Rather it’s shame on the people who will buy the books, read the exclusive interviews in newspapers when they are published and watch the reality shows these pair will eventually appear on. That’s what will generate their after-sentence income. The media and publishers do it because they know the public just love rubber-necking and scandal.
Don’t drop the scissors in prison, ladies.
You really are a bad lieutenant! *)
Quick…. send for the clergy.
They said they were innocent
Let the two tramps rot in Peruvian hell hole jail!
They deserve to be locked up for the rest of their lives, that cocaine would have killed a LOT of people
I’m sorry but I have to step in here. If 10 kg of coke had the potential to kill lots of people then there would probably be thousands of people dying every day from cocaine use.
I know people love to jump on the drugs are bad bandwagon probably while they hypocritically get smashed every weekend but that last statement simply isn’t true.
Why did so many people give my comment a red thumb ? i want an answer !
Because its not true John that’s why!
Most if not all illegal narcotics are nearly as dangerous as they are made out to be.
I know this because I study facts while you listen to sensationalist media.
Most reported fatalities from drugs are usually not directly from the drug itself e.g heat exhaustion on ecstacy or from mixing drugs that are dangerous e.g is fairly hard to OD on heroine alone but add alcohol or benzos in the mix then it becomes very easy. But the news will only report it as a heroine overdose when generally other drugs contributed massivly are not mentioned
*not nearly as
Sorry Robert but if you study the facts you should know that its very easy to od on any drug ingested in guanties greater than are recommended be it over the counter or class A drugs
Racheal you are very wrong. Every single drug has different ld50. That is the amount at which aprox 50% of people taking that amount would die. Some are much larger than others and others are quiet suprising.
E.g xanax general thought to be be quiet dangerous but you could take nearly 100 times the recommended amount and service while paracetamol generally considered to be safe has quiet a low ld50. You can do serious Harm with 10 times the recomm dose.
Now compare ld50 to MDMA (ecstacy) which is about 150mg/kg. since the usual dose of mdma is about 80mg than sombody weighing 80kg would have to take a ridiculous amount to OD.
Much much less than paracetamol.
I know I’m wasting my time here because everyone is just goin to go back to there mr Mackey “drugs are bad” attitude because that’s all they know
Yes Robert you are wasting your time here now step off that high horse your on and stop trying to be a Mr know it all@;-)
lol i didn’t give it the thumbs down but i think it’s maybe cos ppl think that using drugs is a choice, so regardless of how many thousands of kgs are confiscated there’s always another shittonne of drugs being smuggled so it makes no odds really..also i’m not sure about them being locked up for the rest of their lives when there;s folk that get away with murder a lot of the time, they are just a couple of dumb lassies with badly functioning grey matter.
I fear that these two are going to get scissored in prison unless they are kept in isolation.
Is that a sexual reference ?
So until your 25 its all down to brain development and once you turn 26 your just stupid and greedy to think about drug smuggling
Sorry that comment is for Colleene
She can’t , drugs were in both of their bags .
Did the girls never see banged up abroad?
I wonder when she’s released from prison, will she still have that bun on her head. I’ve seen more young ones lately sporting that same hairstyle.
They’re both very young (barely out of their teenage years), impressionable, immature and unwise. Poor girls. Biggest mistake of their young lives.
Bedwyr they knew exactly what they where doing they didn’t make a mistake!! A mistake is picking up low fat milk instead of full fat cop on
They thought that they knew what they were doing. That was their mistake.
Enjoyed your definition of a mistake with the milk! I’ve often done that. Funny until it happens to you!
Bedwyr,I wasn’t trying to be smart or funny with my comment,I have made many mistakes in my life but drug smuggling was never one if them
No, thankfully drug smuggling isn’t a common mistake. The reason being that the vast majority of us (mankind) are immune to making such mistakes. Unfortunately, these two girls, for some reason or other, were not.
Fortunately most of us are wiser and less impressionable.
I WOULDNT SAY IM QUILTY IF I DIDNT DO IT.NO MATTER WHAT
No need to shout though.
Did Quilty do it?
You would, if by pleading guilty you were sentenced to eight years (and be out in three). If they plead Not Guilty, they’ll almost certainly lose the case and be sentenced to 15-20 yrs, and serve maybe 9-12. It’s a no-brainer, anyone that would do otherwise has a few screws loose
Off with their heads
Hear hear
where are all the mouthy idiots a few weeks ago saying there innocent, I notice your very quiet.. everybody knew they were not forced to carry anything..just two complete idiots wanting easy money.. enjoy your jail time
If I was not guilty you would not get me pleasing guilty. No way.
A lot of people pleasing guilty & pleading quility on here…hope they’re not representing those girls in court…
Only users loose drugs…
Nobody is fooled by these two,the excuses trotted out just dont add up,it would be far better for them if they just told the truth that they were just greedy and stupid.
It’s finding the plantations that’s the problem, very well hidden and camouflaged never mind the difficulties with the new type plant. Then when found they have to hit them before the drug guys find they’re on the way. Corruption I’d hardly unknown in Peruvian police.
At last, are people finally beginning to realise the truth about these two.
People make mistakes, they should be let go
I can’t believe that the authorities don’t concentrate more on finding out what fields are growing the drugs. Take it off “the baby” and problem solved.Reasoning doesn’t set in until 26 of age, too many young ones with temptation or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Also it’s a money racket, media, the cost of prison guards, lawyers, financial burden on families. Horrible.
What u going on about love get to bed
Reasoning dosent set in till the age of 26???? Where are you getting that from
The problem with locating the grow areas is that a new type of coca plant has been created.This means that it can now be grown in places such as the jungle, where as this was previously not possible.
It’s in the medical books. Even car insurance is high for a young person based on that research.
Think that is from the paper ‘a social neuroscience perspective on adolescent risk taking’ by Laurence Steinberg. It was reported on it the papers a while back. Basically because of changes in the brains cognitive control system from adolescence to adulthood, once you are over 25 you can see the danger in things more clearly, and risk taking declines, so the study says anyway.
Colleene that’s pure shite!! There’s a big difference between car insurance and drug smuggling!!
Gilty by media opinion. I thought the irish had the capacity to judge one on the facts. Unfortunately with a gility pley we might never know the truth of what happened.
May she burn in a hell one thousand times hotter than the inside of the sun
it’s shite what’s happening to them but what can you do when you think you can get away with smuggling drugs from a Latin American country (and we are not talking just a few grams) and get busted?
Clearly, whoever talked them into it, did not go into the details of what can happen if the shit hits the fan, not that a rocket scientist is needed to explain the obvious or anything..
The good news is that they are still young and will get out with their whole lives ahead..the bad news is that they will be laughing once they start getting minted from all the publicity they will get.
Yip that’s the world we live in. Wouldn’t be surprised if they were received as heroines just as it happened with the case of Florence Cassez from France (was sentenced to jail in Mexico for kidnapping,freed and sent back home where she was received as a heroine)
Having said that, don’t even want to imagine the years of therapy these girls will need after being passed around as a porn mag in whatever Peruvian jail hellhole they end up with.
How much were they to be paid? If nothing ok mistake doing favour for someone.
If high sum then no mistake and let’s drop this poor girls business.
Reid’s father believes she’ll be able to serve her sentence in Scotland.
If they are innocent and I am not saying they are they could spend 7 years possibly waiting for their trial to go to Court, if convicted of this crime which they would more than likely be they could spend up to 15 years in prison, if they plead guilty they get 6 years and 8 months they could be home in four I know what I would choose
I swear to god this thread has me in stitches….. Long live the journal
Lock then both up for life
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