Drugs backpacker given 10 years

Daisy Angus, 26, received the sentence from a Mumbai court for possessing and attempting to smuggle 10kg of cannabis out of the country.

Angus from Bournemouth, Dorset, was asked to carry a case by a companion, but later confessed to her father she thought it may have held drugs.

She has spent four years in Mumbai's Byculla prison awaiting sentencing.

Angus will now have to serve the remaining six years of the ten year sentence but this could be served in the UK, the Foreign Office confirmed on Wednesday.

"We do have a prison transfer agreement with India but it's entirely up to Daisy as to whether she applies for it or not"
Foreign Office

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We do have a prison transfer agreement with India but it's entirely up to Daisy as to whether she applies for it or not."

The former fitness instructor broke down in tears and continued to say she was innocent as the sentence was given on 21 June.

Angus was 22 when she embarked on a round-the-world trip, which took her to India.

In November 2002 she was found with the drugs in a compartment of her suitcase, which she had been given after her bag broke at Mumbai airport.

A 37-year-old acquaintance, travelling with her, was released without charge.

"Her co-accused, Israeli Yoram Kadesh, was freed by a judge because of a lack of evidence," the Foreign Office spokeswoman added.

Suffered malaria

The Angus family have always protested her innocence, with her parents making regular prison visits, up until her father John's death from leukaemia last December.

Angus herself has been affected by illness during her prison stay and has been in hospital with malaria.

John and Nadine Angus, had worked and lived for five years as volunteers in Mother Teresa's care home in Calcutta, during their daughter's early childhood.

Angus had initially received support with her innocent plea from charity Fair Trials Abroad, but they withdrew from the case after Angus admitted knowing about the drugs.

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