TV Interviews

Christopher V. V. Parnell

Author

The Sunday Smuggler Hell's Prisoner Aimless

Authors Note: The Title "The Sunday Smuggler" published HarperCollins is the same book retitled and published as "Hell's Prisoner" by Mainstream Publishers

TELEVISION INTERVIEWS

9am ATV 10 Melbourne Studio February 2006

4.30 NEWS GTV 9 Melbourne Studio 16th February 2006

INSIGHT SBS Network Australia Pre-recorded Sydney Studios

The prominent arrests of alleged heroin smugglers in Bali and Adelaide, the breaking of a cocaine smuggling ring in Sydney and the trial of Schapelle Corby have all highlighted that authorities are a long way from stamping out drug trafficking in Australia.

The Today Show Channel 9 Network Australia

REPORTER: Nick McCallum PRODUCED at Melbourne Studios - Filmed country Victoria

27th May 2005 8.43am TRANSCRIPT

KARL STEPHANOVIC: Tomorrow Schapelle Corby will learn if she has to spend the rest of her life behind bard in Bali. Another Australian Chris Parnell knows exactly what that's like, He spent 11 years in jail for a drug offence, for a crime he says he did not commit. Nick McCallum spoke with him, but we must warn you this report does contain some graphic descriptions.

CHRISTOPHER PARNELL: Schapelle where you are looks like a very black hole but its not as black as it may appear.

NICK McCALLUM: The voice of experience from Chris Parnell, convicted in 1985 of trafficking Hashish (suspicion of transport) in Bali. Like Schapelle he claimed the frugs were not his. unlike Schapelle he had a Stat Dec from another Australian, originally questioned by Indonesian Police but released and sent home insisting the drugs were his and Chris was totally innocent.

CHRISTOPHER PARNELL: The Prosecutor was there and said "If this man comes back to Indonesia and he can take your place in the cell you can go home."

NICK McCALLUM: And that wasn't going to happen

CHRISTOPHER PARNELL: That wasn't going to happen

SCHAPELLE: And to the Judges... My life at the moment is in your hands.

NICK McCALLUM: But also like Schapelle, Chris knew once in court, the odds were stacked against him.

CHRISTOPHER PARNELL: If a person is arrested in Indonesia, they are guilty. but when the Consul or Vice Consul replied that sometimes Police make mistakes. The Indonesian Judge said "In your country maybe the Police make mistakes and arrest the wrong people but not in Indonesia."

NICK McCALLUM: Sentenced to 20 years Chris languished in the same cells as Schapelle and the Bali 9 . But also much harsher Prisons elsewhere because he tried to escape.

CHRISTOPHER PARNELL: You have no morals because you lose it. You become like an Animal, You are an Animal, You are with Animals.

NICK McCALLUM: After a knife fight over food he lost his eye and other organs

CHRISTOPHER PARNELL: They had to remove a section of my right lung, they had to remove my gall bladder, my spleen had been badly pierced and my intestines was badly ripped. they took out 86 cm of intestines.

NICK McCALLUM: You shouldn't have survived.

CHRISTOPHER PARNELL: Oh no, no.

NICK McCALLUM: Facing starvation, he ate Cats, Cockroaches, Birds. Chris was pardoned as a goodwill gesture before John Howard's first visit to Indonesia as Prime Minister in 1996. Now living in Victoria with Fiancé Debbie, Chris looks at all this with mixed feelings.

NICK McCALLUM: Schapelle Corby is getting huge Public Support, She's getting letters written by the Government. Do you wish that you had something like that?

CHRISTOPHER PARNELL: I would have loved that! If that had happened 20 years ago, this would not be happening to Schapelle now because people would be on the ball and would be aware and would be protecting her.

NICK McCALLUM: Chris says that because our relationship with Indonesia in now so good NO MATTER what she's sentenced to Schapelle will not spend long in Jail. Do you think she can survive in Jail?

CHRISTOPHER PARNELL: She will! No one knows their won courage until its been tested and Schapelle's courage is now being tested and she's a young girl. She's a strong girl. When in your heart you know you are innocent it puts you back against the wall. You go "I'm not going to wear this, I am going to survive and walk out on this.

NIGHTLINE Channel 9 Network Australia

REPORTER: DAMIEN RYAN PRODUCER: DALE PAGET Filmed at Sydney Airport

27TH MAY 2005 11.30PM TRANSCRIPT.

(DAMIEN RYAN HAS NEVER MET OR TALKED WITH CHRISTOPHER PARNELL PERSONALLY FACE TO FACE. DAMIEN RYAN WAS IN BALI AT THE TIME OF THIS INTERVIEW AND CHRISTOPHER HAD JUST STEPPED OFF A PLANE FROM MELBOURNE IN SYDNEY. )

Christopher was met by 2Channel 9 Cameraman at Sydney Airport, telling him that Dale Paget couldn't make the interview because he was in Bali.

With less than 24 hours before Schapelle Corby's trial in Bali

Damien Ryan has talked to a man who knows how bad that can be.

DAMIEN: (In Bali) For nearly 8 months Schapelle has been here at Kerobokan Prison. For a time it was also home to Chris Parnell, an Australian who endured 11 years in a series of Indonesian Prisons.

CHRISTOPHER: (Sydney Airport) As for the conditions Horrendous, horrendous.

DAMIEN (In Bali) :Arrested in 1985 for importing Hashish a crime he has always denied. his jail term was a nightmare and he kept photographic evidence.

CHRISTOPHER: (Sydney Airport) Nobody gave me any help so I was reduced to eating things I could catch, Cats, I was reduced to eating maggoty meat, pulling the maggots out and eating them separately.

DAMIEN (In Bali) : Apart from starvation there was the constant threat of violence in a crowded cell, he lost an eye in one attack, Money became his security (Christopher had his own cell at the time of the attack)

CHRISTOPHER: (Sydney Airport) I paid $10 a month for a single cell then they let me have a light bulb in the cell, so for that I paid an extra $10 per month. so my cell was costing me $20 per month.

DAMIEN (In Bali) : The Father of 2 says he fears for Schapelle if she's sent back to jail. (CHRISTOPHER HAS FATHERED 3 CHILDREN)

CHRISTOPHER: (Sydney Airport) Even if she did commit it, she's done enough. 6 months in a place like that is hell.

DAMIEN (In Bali) : Chris Parnell says "there's no escaping this horrifying existence, he tried once and failed just as hopeless were his efforts to appeal. he says putting any faith in the Legal system here is doomed.

CHRISTOPHER: (Sydney Airport) In the 11 years that I was in Prison I have seen not hundreds but thousands of prisoners come and go and not one of them were acquitted... never a one.

60 MINUTES Channel 9 Network Australia

REPORTER: LIZ HAYES PRODUCER: KATHRYN BONELLA & HOWARD SACRE - Filmed Kerobokan Prison Bali Indonesia.

THE TRIAL OF SCHAPELLE CORBY 29TH May 2005

REPORTER: LIZ HAYES PRODUCERS: KATHRYN BONELLA & HOWARD SACRE

Christopher & Liz Hayes Interview transcript:

PART THREE OF "THE TRIAL OF SCHAPELLE CORBY "

PETER OVERTON: Those who know say that if Schapelle Corby is to survive her sentence, she will need to pay money regularly to buy extra food and to pay bribes to get her own cell and not have to share. Chris Parnell knows the misery of Indonesian jails. He spent 11 years in five different prisons for a drugs crime he says he didn't commit.

LIZ HAYES: How long did you spend here?

CHRIS PARNELL: I spent two years. I spent nearly nine months in that tower being punished but most of the time I spent in that far red block.

LIZ HAYES: Chris Parnell knows what Schapelle can expect. In 1985 he was also convicted of importing marijuana. He served 11 years. Like Schapelle, he claims he was framed. In jail, he was troublesome. He tried escaping. He got into fights. His advice to Schapelle is to conform but he knows it will be a huge adjustment.

CHRIS PARNELL: You have to lower your own standards. You have to get over — the big hurdles are decency, sentiment, compassion. These are all hurdles that you have to get over if you want to survive.

LIZ HAYES: So for Schapelle Corby to survive a lengthy prison sentence, she'll have to become a tough woman?

CHRIS PARNELL: The girl that is Schapelle Corby now will die in prison and the girl that comes out will be a very, very different girl. Her heart will be different, her spirit will be different and her soul will be different.

LIZ HAYES: Chris Parnell says she'll need money from her family and friends, which he had, to pay off guards to buy the things she needs to survive. Did you have enough food to eat?

CHRIS PARNELL: Never enough. That's why — I needed that money from my family, that $100 a month. That kept me alive. Without that, I would have, without fail, died.

LIZ HAYES: Food? What did you eat?

CHRIS PARNELL: She can expect a small, flat plate of rice with a scoop of vegetables on it twice a day which will be for the lunch and the evening meal. Her breakfast will also be a very flat tray of rice with a boiled sweet potato and twice a week she can expect two pieces of dried, salted fish and generally the guards take the body off the fish and give the prisoners the head.

LIZ HAYES: And right now there are 46 Australians doing time for offences in Asian jails.

CHRIS PARNELL: If she stays in Bali, things will be okay, will be sweet. But if she gets a heavy sentence and they shift her over to the mainland prisons, the mainland prisons are very rough, very rough. If she ever goes to any punishment prisons, she can expect the worst.

LIZ HAYES: Chris Parnell emerged a damaged man — physically and mentally. He says Schapelle would do herself a favour by swallowing her pride. That way she'll be home sooner. Schapelle is pleading not guilty and the Indonesians won't like that so she'll have to decide for her own better and her own piece of mind if she's going to stick to her guns, it will come at a cost. If she agrees, if she goes humble, if she pleads for mercy, says "I've done the wrong thing. Please forgive me," then they will.

PETER OVERTON: Schapelle Corby has now lodged her appeal with the High Court. However, if it goes against her, she has to weigh up the risk of being given a longer sentence, possibly even the death penalty.

For any questions or comments about this web site. Send mail to debbie@christophervvparnell.com

Copyright © 2002 The Sunday Smuggler-Christopher V V Parnell

Last modified: September 22, 2006