Its best to stay squeaky clean when in a foreign country

Daisy Angus had her sentence overturned last month

A backpacker from the UK who was wrongfully imprisoned in India on a drugs charge has attacked the British government for their lack of help. Read original article

Daisy Angus, 26, who is now back home in Bournemouth, Dorset, was "shocked by the lack of empathy and help".

The foreign office seemed prepared to leave her to "rot" in prison, she said.

But in a statement, the Foreign Office said: "The Foreign Office and the British High Commission in India provided full consular assistance."

In response to the accusations, the Foreign Office said they gave full assistance from the beginning of Ms Angus's incarceration.

After nearly five years of living a nightmare, I am overjoyed to finally be back in Britain Daisy Angus

It said: "The High Commission was in regular contact with Indian authorities and intervened over prison conditions.

"We must stress however that we cannot interfere in the judicial process of another country: our role is one of welfare."

However, Ms Angus claimed government authorities were very slow to act.

"It seems the British Government is prepared to leave British citizens to rot in Indian prisons, in conditions that are truly appalling," she said.

"Some of the individual people in the High Commission were very nice.

"But I just cannot understand why, after everything I had been through, the British authorities dragged their feet issuing me with a new passport."

Father's death

Ms Angus always insisted she was given the suitcase, containing 10kg of cannabis, by an Israeli businessman she met in 2002 while on a round-the-world trip.

She was jailed for 10 years by a judge in Mumbai Sessions Court on June 21 last year, until her sentence was overturned by the High Court in Mumbai last month.

Ms Angus said she was beaten during strip searches, fell violently ill with malaria and was allowed just one 10-minute visit a month.

Her parents made regular visits to see her in jail, up until her father's death from leukaemia in December 2005.

Ms Angus said: "After nearly five years of living a nightmare, I am overjoyed to finally be back in Britain, reunited with my family and friends, who have stood by me and worked tirelessly to prove my innocence."