Sydney woman jailed in Bali till December
A Sydney woman has thanked Indonesian judges who sentenced her to 10 months' jail for drug possession, and will not appeal the punishment.
Leeza Tracey Ormsby, 37, could have been jailed for up to 12 years after police found a marijuana joint in her handbag when she stumbled on a drug raid at a Bali villa in February.
With the time she has served in custody since then, Ormsby will be eligible for release in December.
Prosecutors had recommended the New Zealander serve 15 months' jail, while her defence argued for greater leniency as Ormsby had been treated for depression and had used heroin in the past.
At the sentencing on Wednesday, judge Parulian Saragih said to her credit, Ormsby had admitted her guilt and had promised not to reoffend.
The New Zealander remained composed throughout the hearing and managed a smile when she approached the judges afterwards to thank them.
Dressed in a loose white shirt and carrying a fan, she returned to her holding cell without speaking to reporters.
Ormsby had gone to Bali in February to escape a stressful situation in Sydney, where the shop assistant hadn't been working for some weeks, according to one of her Paddington flatmates.
Her trip to Bali coincided with the release from Kerobokan jail of Australian drug convict Schapelle Corby.
Around the time of that media whirlwind, Bali police got a tip-off about drugs at a villa north of Kuta.
Ormsby was not staying there, but she was pounced on by officers as she arrived on the morning of February 12 to pick up her laptop and towel.
The trial heard police stood by as Ormsby used a key to enter the villa, where MDMA and hashish were found in a cupboard.
A search of Ormsby's handbag found a half-smoked joint, which she admitted to buying from someone on the beach.
The Rotorua-born woman remained in a police cell without charge until May - the maximum time allowed - while police probed her links to the other drugs.
She repeatedly denied any knowledge of the six tablets of hashish and seven tablets of MDMA, over which no one has been charged.
Her lawyer, Ari Soenardi, criticised police for not focusing on other people who had visited the villa.
One of them was Sydney musician Azaria Byrne, who told a reporter there were no drugs in the villa when he left it.
Another was Marco Mazzucco, known also as Sydney's "DJ Marcotix".
The trial heard he gave police a lengthy account of his movements and since he had no drugs on him, he was allowed to return to Sydney.
A psychiatrist who examined Ormsby told the trial she was one of 13 children and at age six, was adopted by a family that frequently left her alone.
She had been treated for depression and had once had a heroin overdose.
The only time Ormsby became emotional during the trial was when she apologised to the judges, saying, "I knew the law but I broke it."
Ormsby will serve her sentence in Kerobokan jail.
