'Cocaine Cassie' reveals horror stabbing in notorious prison: 'Had a lot of enemies'
And that's just the tip of the iceberg, the convicted drug smuggler said.
Convicted drug smuggler Cassie Sainsbury, also known as 'Cocaine Cassie', has shed light on the horrifying conditions she faced while an inmate at Colombia's notorious El Buen Pastor prison, revealing she'd been "beaten multiple times" and stabbed twice.
Now 28, Ms Sainsbury was in 2017 sentenced to six years behind bars after she was caught with 5.8kg of cocaine hidden in her luggage at Bogota Airport. Three years into her sentence Ms Sainsbury was released for "having completed three fifths of my sentence" and due to good behaviour.
The drug smuggler-turned-fitness influencer has since moved back to her home city of Adelaide, with wife Tatiana, whom she met in Colombia. Having being diagnosed with PTSD following her ordeal, Ms Sainsbury revealed exactly what it was like living in such a brutal environment, ahead of her appearance on reality series SAS Australia.
Cassie Sainsbury 'beaten a lot, stabbed'
"I think it was nothing that I expected. Obviously, everyone goes into SAS thinking, oh, you know, it's not [that] hard. Instantly I was transported straight back to prison," Ms Sainsbury told Fitzy and Wippa with Kate Ritchie on Monday.
"I had a lot of beatings. I got beaten up a lot. I got stabbed. I got two stab marks on my arms where I was stabbed. I went through a lot of things that I wouldn't wish on anyone ever."
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Asked what prompted the attacks, Ms Sainsbury revealed she "had a lot of enemies".
"Obviously being the gringa (a Spanish slur meaning a foreign woman) in a Spanish prison, it just brings that attention of you know, rich white girl. Need to I guess bully her down until that's it," she said. "And I didn't know the language. Like you would have people yelling at me and I’m like huh, what?"
Ms Sainsbury went on to explain that she was eventually released from prison due to having served the majority of her sentence, and from good behaviour having taught English inside.
"I was released because I had completed three fifths of my sentence," she said. "So between physical time and the discount that I was doing as an English teacher, I managed to obtain a parole, which at the very beginning of my process with my judge, she said she would not give it to me.
"So bit by bit, I managed to wear her down a bit and I guess show the real me to her as well, that it wasn't just a process or a case in front of her."
Ms Sainsbury is due to appear on the latest season of SAS Australia alongside a dozen other "celebrities", which will air on the Seven Network.
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