Popular blogger and radio presenter Constance Hall has written an open letter to convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby, who was released on Saturday after serving a sentence of almost 13 years in Bali.
While public commentators have been highly critical of Corby and the media circus surrounding her in the days since her return, Hall offered her support to the 39-year-old, saying she can relate to being “young and living and… paying the consequences”.
In her letter, 33-year-old Hall addressed Corby, saying “you kinda feel like someone I’ve known for over 10 years so”.
“As a 21-year-old who had watched the news about three times in her life, I found my heart bleeding for yours,” she wrote.
Hall said during Corby’s trial, conviction and sentence, she didn’t spend any time wondering whether she was guilty or innocent.
Why?
Because she didn’t care.
Listen: Is Cassie Sainsbury the new Schapelle Corby?
“You see at 21 I had already f**ked up so many times,” she wrote. “I had been on Big Brother and been the first one evicted for generally being a massive f**k up.
“Thankfully so as I later found out I was pregnant to my boyfriend who I had since broken up with.” Hall then had to make a “tough decision” at an abortion clinic.
“But none of my f**k ups cost me 13 years in a Balinese prison,” Hall wrote. “So whether you did it or not, was never my question. Because even if you did, I’d have cried the same amount of tears for you.”
The mum-of-four explained her “favourite uncle” smuggled heroin into Australia in the 1980s, and spent time in Fremantle prison. She’s eternally grateful he was caught here, and not in Thailand, where he could’ve faced a very different fate.
Hall also wrote that years ago, her father took her to the funeral of Van Tuong Nguyen – a Melbourne man who was hanged for drug trafficking in Singapore. The experience taught her compassion, and she cried for a 25-year-old man who had to die for his mistakes.
“I later named my son Rumi,” Hall wrote. “A Persian poet who wrote the quote… ‘out beyond the ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there’.”
Her final message for Corby was, “I think that you’re interesting and I think you’re strong. And I am bloody happy to have you home”.
It’s a very different perspective to the one that’s dominating public conversation – and one, perhaps, we needed to hear.
You can read Constance Hall’s full post, here.
Top Comments
She needs to read The sins of the father by Eamonn Duff.
That book was proven to be a bunch of lies and the author admitted he couldn't provide any proof for any of it, and he had to pay a couple of million in compensation. Hardly a book to recommend. Perhaps you should read Schapelle's book. Now that is a real eye-opener.
I just saw her her latest Instagram post and all the comments applauding her and laughing at the media. Are people really that stupid???
If you really don't want attention why taunt the media???
She wants all the positive attention but doesn't want to answer any questions.