The nightmare is over for Australian teenager Jamie Murphy who has been released from a Bali police station after the suspicious white powder he was found carrying proved to be nothing more than painkillers.
The 18-year-old Perth school leaver was arrested in the early hours of Monday morning at Sky Garden nightclub in Kuta after the substance he was said to be carrying was confirmed as nothing more than a mix of painkillers, cough medicine and caffeine.
Blood and urine tests on Murphy also came back negative for illicit drugs.
Sky Garden Management has now apologised for their handling of the teenager’s arrest and reprimanded one of their security officers — who was photographed aggressively grabbing Murphy’s face while holding him by the neck — for using ‘excessive force’.
The nightclub has apologised for security using 'excessive force'. Source: Nine News
"We would like to extend a sincere apology to Jamie, his family and friends. Our company procedure is to hand over suspects peacefully to police if we feel they’ve committed a crime at Sky Garden," they wrote in a statement.
"We have reprimanded the security in question and he will not be permitted to come back to work until he has completed and passed another round of police security training."
They added that in the officer's defence he had been ordered to hold the young man's face up by police.
"We feel he used too much ‘excessive force’ which is clearly unacceptable under the circumstances," they said.
The statement ended by wishing everyone a "safe and trouble-free 2016 Schoolies Celebration".
Murphy has now been released from the Bali police custody and reunited with his worried mum and dad who flew to be with him overnight.
As he left the police station after two nights he was asked if he was happy the ordeal was over, he simply said "yep".
If the drugs had proved to be heroin or cocaine he faced up to 12 years in an Indonesia prison.
Top Comments
We don't actually know what happened here and haven't heard any direct quotes from Jamie or his lawyers.
I wonder if how many people commenting below are actually aware of how common it is for young men to be targeted like this - where security/police threaten to plant drugs if they don't pay them money. During my backpacker days, I heard of this scenario a lot in south east asia and south america, which makes me question any reports I read on stories like this and reluctant to judge, unlike many other comments here to this post.
I traveled and lived overseas for years and I have NEVER heard of that happening to any of my friends or fellow travelers. I have literally never heard it happen.
Sure, it is conceivable....but the much more common scenario is that an idiot teenager brought drugs on schoolies.
DP, I haven't spent time in SE Asia, but I did spend a lot of time with young men Jamie's age when I was younger. And with some of them, it was very common to use drugs. This wasn't something I heard of, some repeated story or urban legend - these were boys I knew, some of them my friends. Which is why I find it easy to believe that an 18-year-old might use drugs.
Why do Australians continue to go to Bali? It is a shthole and the country has no respect for Australians. I'll never understand why people go to that way over-rated dump.