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Jailed drug Brit Laura Plummer reveals heartache at not being allowed to say goodbye to hubby before being marched onto flight home
JUBILANT jail hell Brit Laura Plummer toasted her freedom — but spoke of her sadness at being denied one final goodbye with her husband.
Laura, 34, was freed after a 14-month ordeal in a notorious Cairo prison, where she had been locked up for carrying a bag full of banned painkillers into Egypt.
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And as she headed home following her presidential pardon, she told The Sun that she was marched into the airport terminal by police and not allowed to say goodbye to hubby Omar Saad, 34.
He had travelled to the airport with Laura’s sister Jayne Synclair, 41, and mum Roberta.
Laura said: “It’s so humiliating. I’m so embarrassed.”
But as she got on the plane, Laura said: “I’m so happy to be free from prison at last and coming home. There were times when I thought this day would never come.
“I just want to get home and have a long bath and to get in my own bed.
“It’s been a terrible ordeal for me and my family and to think it’s finally all over is overwhelming.”
I just want to get home, have a long bath and get into my bed
Laura Plummer
Laura was arrested in October 2017 after 290 Tramadol prescription painkillers were found in her luggage. She tried to explain they were for Omar, who has chronic back pain following a car crash.
Prosecutors refused to believe her and she was convicted and jailed.
The Sun campaigned for her release, eventually helping to secure her pardon.
She said: “It’s absurd to suggest I’m some kind of drugs mule for my holiday romance. It’s just not true. I hate drugs and I hate drug dealers. I still live at home with my mum.
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“I’m just not that person people want to believe I am.
“I am a nice girl, I’m hard working and I enjoy the rewards of it. I can’t believe that this actually happened to me.
"It’s been like living a nightmare — but one which I never woke up from.”
Laura said the painkillers were given to her by a pal and she had no idea they were banned in Egypt.
She said: “They were the last thing to be packed. I just put them on top of all my clothes and zipped the case shut.
“For the next 14 months I lived in hell. But Omar remained by my side throughout. He visited me every month and made sure I was well looked after.
“He refused to give up on me and fought, along with my family and The Sun, to get me free. I can’t leave him behind.
“I love him and he loves me and our love has survived the most traumatic of ordeals.
“For that reason I can’t say I won’t ever go back.”
Laura also said that while she packed for her fateful trip, she was watching Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason — where Bridget is jailed for smuggling drugs.
She said: “I didn’t like the bit when Bridget gets arrested abroad because it was so unbelievable.
I love him and he loves me and our love has survived the most traumatic of ordeals.
Laura Plummer
“But hours later I was in exactly the same situation. I couldn’t believe it.
“I kept thinking about the film, telling myself ‘remember Bridget Jones’, remember what happened to her.
“I remembered how she got on so well with other inmates that she taught them to sing Madonna’s Like a Virgin.
“But it was nothing like that for me. It was my worst nightmare. And there was no Mark Darcy to fly over and help free me.”
PILL ORDEAL
Shop worker Laura, from Hull, said she almost forgot to pack the pills, which are legal on prescription in the UK.
She remembered at the last minute, so they were the last thing packed and were not hidden or concealed in any way.
But customs officials refused to believe her story and were convinced she was an international drug smuggler.
She also told The Sun that she feared being tortured after her arrest and of her despair at Foreign Office flunkies.
Laura said: “I was carted off to the police station, not knowing what was happening.
“At first I thought they were joking. They put me in a large cell with lots of other women.
I kept thinking about the film, telling myself ‘remember Bridget Jones’, remember what happened to her.
Laura Plummer
“There were no windows, only a steel grate at the door. I remained there for three months, barely seeing any sunlight, whilst all the time the other girls in there kept stealing my things.
“For weeks I remained in the same clothes that I flew in. At one stage I was taken into a room by two mean cops and interrogated.
“I kept telling them what had happened but they refused to believe me. I genuinely believed they would end up waterboarding me or pouring salt into my eyes.”
Meanwhile, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office offered consular advice to Laura’s family, urging them to say nothing to the media.
But she soon made headlines around the world.
And Laura said: “As soon as The Sun got involved everything changed. The police couldn’t do enough for me.
“You saved my life. I don’t know what would have happened had The Sun not got involved.
“If my family had followed the Foreign Office advice I would have been abandoned and left to rot in there. They were utterly useless, from start to finish.
“I asked for Theresa May’s help, I even asked my sister to contact the Queen.
“The only people who answered my call were those at The Sun and I will be eternally grateful.”
All I want to do is get home, get into my pyjamas and curl up on the sofa for Emmerdale and Coronation Street.
Laura Plummer
Last night, Laura landed in Europe and will fly back in to Heathrow this afternoon, glad that her ordeal is over. She said: “At times I thought I was on the Truman Show.
“Everyone knew who I was and what had happened.
“If you were bad in prison they would put you in a cage inside the toilets used by inmates on the murder wing.
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“The majority of the women in there have killed their husbands. One of the girls was so sick of her husband cheating that she stabbed him to death, cut off his penis and then shoved it in his mouth.
“I’m so pleased it’s now over. All I want to do is get home, get into my pyjamas and curl up on the sofa for Emmerdale and Coronation Street.
“I just want to get back to some form of normality. Starting with my bed.”
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Sam's gift
SAM Smith’s song Pray helped to keep Laura motivated in prison — and made her feel like her pardon was a miracle.
She said: “The lyrics are ‘pray for a glimmer of hope’. It made me cry every time I heard it.
“I felt like it was a gift from God because I was told I had got the pardon in church.
“They were saying you’re going home. Everyone was shouting and kissing me.”
British woman Laura Plummer freed after being jailed in Egypt for possessing tramadol painkillers
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