Forget You Had a Daughter

Forget You Had a Daughter is a book written by Sandra Gregory, who was convicted of trying to smuggle heroin out of Thailand. Penniless after spending two years travelling around the country she was approached by a wealthy called Robert Lock from her home country Britain who made her a proposal, "Come to Tokyo with me and if you hide" "my drugs on your person, I will give you £1000"." he told her. He wanted her to smuggle 89 grams of heroin into Japan for him. She felt she couldn't resist and went along with it.

She was caught and was thrown into Lard Yao Correctional Facility. It is notorious for its brutality, drug abuse, squalid conditions and severe overcrowding.

Sandra spent three years living in these conditions before even being convicted. Her time to go to court came and she entered a guilty plea to possession and attempting to smuggle heroin out of Thailand. Fortunately for her she was only carrying 89 grams, as it is standard procedure in Thailand to execute persons who are found guilty of attempting to smuggle more than 90 grams of heroin. Lock, pleaded not guilty. Sandra Gregory was found guilty and was sentenced to death, then subsequently it was reduced to life imprisonment, then downgraded furthermore to 25 years in the same day. Lock was found not guilty of all charges and was free to leave Thailand.

After spending four years in Thailand's Lard Yao prison, Sandra was allowed to return to Britain to complete the remainder of her sentence (21 years). saiddescribes in one letter to her parents "I wish I had stayed in Thailand"

She spent hours and hours each day locked in her cell in England. It was the complete opposite to Lard Yao where you were given the freedom to roam around the prison. This started to get Sandra down as she stated when she first arrived at Lard Yao that she was "happy" as she could see the blue sky and the green trees in the prison garden.

After years of long and gruelling campaigning by her parents for her release, the King of Thailand finally granted her clemency and she was released on the 21st of July 2000.

She has stated that she is disappointed in her actions as it will mean that she will not be able to return to "the country I grew to" "love"."

Sandra Gregory wrote a book in reference to the events that followed her 'drugs incident'. The book, titled 'Forget you had a daughter', was released as a hardback in 2002 by Vision. The mass market paperback edition was published in 2004 by Vision Paperbacks. The book details the start of her journey to a beautiful country, her run in with the Thai Law and her eventual incarceration in one of the worst prison systems in the world.

References

* [http://www.portia.org/chapter01/gregory.html A sentence way out of line]
* [http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,9830,524116,00.html A life outside]
* [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4156/is_20010708/ai_n13960496 Heroin smuggler Sandra Gregory wins place at Oxford University]
* [http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/lm/stories/s1058485.htm Life Matters]
* [http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biography_story/1932:2455/1/BANGED_UP_ABROAD_Sandra_Gregory_s_Story.htm Banged Up Abroad: Sandra Gregory's Story]