Schapelle Corby, Bali Nine's jail nightmare revealed
Evonne Barry, in Brisbane's Courier Mail
October 25, 2009
Evonne Barry, in Brisbane's Courier Mail
October 25, 2009
MURDERS, corruption, paid sex and drug abuse are part of everyday life in the Indonesian jail housing Schapelle Corby and the Bali Nine, a new book reveals.
Corby biographer Kathryn Bonella spent 18 months interviewing prisoners and guards from Bali's notorious Kerobokan Jail, dubbed "Hotel K".
Ms Bonella said she encountered a world in which the unbelievable soon became ordinary.
Corby biographer Kathryn Bonella spent 18 months interviewing prisoners and guards from Bali's notorious Kerobokan Jail, dubbed "Hotel K".
Ms Bonella said she encountered a world in which the unbelievable soon became ordinary.
"I was fascinated with this crazy world of drugs, sex and gambling – where pedophiles, serial killers and rapists sleep alongside card sharks, petty thieves and unlucky tourists caught at a club with one or two ecstasy pills in their pocket," she writes in Hotel Kerobokan.
In
that mixture is Corby, who has spent the past five years in the jail for marijuana possession, and who, Ms Bonella says, has become immune to the daily horrors.
"Finding a dead prisoner hanging by a noose one morning barely caused her to react," Ms Bonella wrote.
"I saw her shortly afterwards, and she was totally calm. Her detachment was chilling. (And) the inmates all knew this was murder."
Ms Bonella also details how guards routinely accept hundreds of dollars in bribes for upgrades to better cells, and for allowing sexual partners into the prison.
One prisoner estimates "80 per cent" of the guards are corrupt, with many running drugs in and out of the lock-up.
Renae Lawrence, the only female member of the Bali Nine heroin-smuggling syndicate, is depicted as "the playboy of the women's block". "She was big, muscular and masculine, had money and was western. Women threw themselves at her."
In
that mixture is Corby, who has spent the past five years in the jail for marijuana possession, and who, Ms Bonella says, has become immune to the daily horrors."Finding a dead prisoner hanging by a noose one morning barely caused her to react," Ms Bonella wrote.
"I saw her shortly afterwards, and she was totally calm. Her detachment was chilling. (And) the inmates all knew this was murder."
Ms Bonella also details how guards routinely accept hundreds of dollars in bribes for upgrades to better cells, and for allowing sexual partners into the prison.
One prisoner estimates "80 per cent" of the guards are corrupt, with many running drugs in and out of the lock-up.
Renae Lawrence, the only female member of the Bali Nine heroin-smuggling syndicate, is depicted as "the playboy of the women's block". "She was big, muscular and masculine, had money and was western. Women threw themselves at her."
The three Bali Nine members awaiting execution for attempting to smuggle heroin from Indonesia to Australia in 2005 – Myuran Sukamaran, Andrew Chan and Scott Rush – live in the so-called "death tower". The other six are serving 20 years to life.
Hotel Kerobokan: The Shocking Inside Story of Bali's Most Notorious Jail
by Kathryn Bonella will be published by Macmillan Australia on Wednesday.
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