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Legalbrief   |   your legal news hub Friday 12 June 2026

Drug Muled: Sixteen years in a Thai prison

Joanne Joseph Jacana. R177

On the verge of a big break in modelling, Miss South Africa finalist, 21-year-old Vanessa Goosen is caught up in every traveller's nightmare. Duped into carrying books with 1.7kg of heroin hidden in them, Goosen is arrested and tried on drug trafficking charges. Deaf to her pleas of innocence, the Thai courts sentence Goosen to death. On appeal her sentence is commuted to life, to be served in Bangkok's notorious Lard Yao prison. Pregnant, terrified and desperately alone, Goosen begins a harrowing 16-year journey behind bars. Forced to part with her beloved daughter three years later, Goosen's story traces the joy and hurt of motherhood behind bars, the depression that comes with long-term incarceration and separation, and her return to a hugely changed South Africa in 2010. - Jacana