Briton home after drugs sentence quashed

A British man freed from jail in Thailand has flown home after a life sentence for drugs offences was quashed.There were emotional scenes at London's Heathrow Airport as Jody Aggett was greeted by his five-year-old son, Ryan, his parents, Lorna and Tony, and his twin sister, Tammy.Mr Aggett's Thai girlfriend, Ramphia Lo, gave birth in jail after she was sentenced alongside Mr Aggett following their arrest in 2001.The couple decided to send Ryan home to his grandparents in Swindon, Wiltshire, and today was only the second time that the little boy has met his father.Mr Aggett was jailed for life in 2003 after his sentence was commuted from the death penalty originally imposed.He had been staying above a travel agent's in Bangkok with Ramphia Lo, known in the family as Kristin, when they were both arrested.Mr Aggett's parents said the couple were allowed to stay rent-free if they opened and closed the shop each day but the agency's owner, unbeknown to them, was manufacturing Ecstasy in the building.The couple were advised to plead guilty but refused and his family have been campaigning, along with Fair Trials Abroad, for their release for six years.Mr Aggett, who said he had never expected to see freedom, thanked everybody who supported him not only through campaigning but also by writing letters and visiting him in prison. He said he coped by "taking each day, day by day".Mr Aggett and his girlfriend were ordered to sign what the family say amounted to a false confession in Thai and were found guilty of being part of a plot to manufacture drugs alongside the travel agent's owner.They lodged an appeal against the conviction with the Thai Supreme Court, claiming an unfair trial and insufficient evidence, but political upheavals in the country, including a military coup last year, delayed the hearing of Mr Aggett's case.Sabine Zanker, of Fair Trials Abroad, said the family now intended to work on getting a visa for Kristin.She said Mr Aggett's release was "a great relief and a great joy"."We had a lot of faith in the Supreme Court but the military coup caused a delay and we had to wait a long time before everything settled down but we have the feeling that the new government was interested in correcting some miscarriages of justice of the previous administration," she said."They actually admitted that there are some people in their jail that shouldn't be there."© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.

ITN | September 11, 2007

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