Holly Deane-Johns

Infobox Criminal
subject_name = Holly Deane-Johns

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image_size =
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date_of_birth = 1972
place_of_birth = Western Australia
date_of_death =
place_of_death =
alias =
charge =
conviction = Drug trafficking
penalty = 31 years imprisonment
status = Imprisoned (Western Australia)
occupation =
spouse =
parents =
children =

Holly Deane-Johns (born 1972) is an Australian woman convicted in Thailand of attempting to post a parcel of 11 grams heroin back to Australia. Further quantities of 15 grams of heroin was found in her Bangkok apartment and another 110 grams in her companion's residence. Originally facing the death penalty, she pleaded guilty in 2003 to heroin trafficking in order to receive a reduced sentence of 31 years. [cite news|url=http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/07/04/1057179158696.html|title=Heroin addicts escape Thai death sentence|date=July 5 2003|author=Mark Baker|work=The Age|accessdate=2007-12-07] Under Thai law, traffickers found with more than 100 grams of heroin face a mandatory penalty of death by lethal injection.

She was born in Western Australia, where she attended Mount Lawley Senior High School in Perth, becoming a heroin addict at the age of 15. Her mother died from a heroin overdose. Deane-Johns spent six years in Western Australia's Bandyup Women's Prison for a range of drug related offences prior to the Thai conviction.

Background and arrest

Deane-Johns was arrested by Thai police in August 2000 when she attempted to mail a parcel, later found to contain about 11 grams of heroin at Bangkok Central Post Office in the company of Robert Halliwell. Thai narcotics agents had been monitoring their movements for two months previously.

She had flown to Thailand in early 2000 to reunite with her boyfriend, but after he returned early to Australia spent time with Halliwell, a mutual friend and fellow junkie who had fled to Thailand 20 years earlier to escape drugs charges in Australia.

Prisoner transfer to Australia

After having spent seven years in incarceration in the Klong Prem Prison in Chatuchak, in 2006 Deane-Johns applied to be transferred to a Western Australian jail under a 2002 bilateral prisoner exchange agreement between Australia and Thailand.cite news|url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/general/a-hell-away-from-home/2005/10/08/1128563036865.html|title=A hell away from home|work=The Age|date=October 9, 2005|accessdate=2007-12-07] Despite Federal government approval, her application was refused by Western Australian Corrective Services Minister Margaret Quirk. [cite web | url = http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,21903979-2761,00.html | title = Quirk rejects Deane-Johns plea | date = June 15, 2007 | accessdate = 2007-06-28 | work = perthnow.com]

On 14 June 2007, Federal Minister for Justice and Customs, Senator David Johnston urged the Western Australian Government to reconsider its decision to block Deane-Johns' return [cite web | url = http://www.ministerjusticeandcustoms.gov.au/www/agd/mjc.nsf/page/rwpbf5a930c902b278dca2572f90079ad86 | title = Circumstances Unlikely To Change | date = 14 June 2007 | accessdate = 2007-06-28 | work = Minister of Justice and Customs] but the request was promptly declined. Minister Quirk announced on 9 August 2007 that she now supported Deane-Johns' return to Australia based on new medical evidence that she had been provided with that indicated Deane-John's "already serious health problems would be further complicated should she remain in the Bangkok prison". [Ben Spencer. "The West Australian" 9 August, 2007]

On 7 December 2007, Deane-Johns arrived back in Australia. [cite news|url=http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=77&ContentID=49962|work=The West|title=Holly Deane-Johns flies home from Thailand|date=7th December 2007|accessdate=2007-12-07|author=Gabrielle Knowles] She is expected to serve another five years of her sentence at Bandyup Women's Prison

ee also

*List of Australians imprisoned or executed abroad

Notes

External links

* [http://www.phaseloop.com/foreignprisoners/case-holly_dean_johns.html Information at Foreign Prisoners Support Service]
* [http://www.phaseloop.com/foreignprisoners/exp-holly.html Report of a visit]
* [http://www.theage.com.au/news/general/a-hell-away-from-home/2005/10/08/1128563036865.html Cases of drug related incarceration]

Persondata
NAME= Deane-Johns, Holly
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=
DATE OF BIRTH=1972
PLACE OF BIRTH=Western Australia
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=