The Send Simon Home Campaign

Simon Burke is a British Citizen currently being held overseas. A recent Channel 5 documentary highlighted his plight. Please take time to read the background detailed:-

The Documentary told the tale of Sarah Jackson, who duped her friend Simon into helping her smuggle drugs from Peru to the UK. Seized by police, the pair were split up and sent to different jails as they awaited trial.

The drama-documentary series that tells the gripping real-life stories of travellers detained overseas returns for a new run. The first episode recounts the tale of Sarah Jackson, who duped her friend Simon into helping her smuggle drugs from Peru to the UK. Seized by police, the pair were split up and sent to different jails as they awaited trial.

In 2007, young mother Sarah Jackson needed to pay off £3,000 in debts so she made a drastic decision. Sarah agreed to become a drugs courier, smuggling cocaine from Peru to the UK.

In order to make her trip seem like a holiday, Sarah invited her gullible friend Simon to come with her. Simon was to provide a cover of respectability and play the role of unwitting accomplice.

Sarah and Simon’s trip seemed to go smoothly. As she passed through check-in and passport control, Sarah’s confidence grew. Once in Peru, the pair enjoyed the beauty of the Peruvian Andes. But while Simon was innocently roaming the Inca ruins at Machu Picchu, Sarah was secretly taking delivery of nearly 10kg of cocaine.

As the pair prepared to return to London, Sarah got rid of Simon at Lima airport so she could check in alone. After running a gauntlet of dogs, police and security checks, she was briefly stopped by an airline official who had doubts about her passport. Her luggage was then held up after being X-rayed. Desperately trying to hide her nerves, Sarah was convinced that the police had discovered the drugs – but she miraculously made it through. The coast seemed to be clear until, all of a sudden, a polite voice asked her to wait, and Sarah was arrested by the anti-drugs police.

Meanwhile, Simon – oblivious to Sarah’s plight – went to look for her at the check-in counter, only to be arrested and dragged into an interrogation room. Moments later, he came face to face with Sarah in handcuffs and saw the cocaine laid out before him. It was only then that Simon realised his friend’s betrayal.

Unfortunately, Simon’s shyness and stumbling speech only served to convince the police that he was as guilty as Sarah. In due course, the pair were thrown into the nightmare world of Peruvian prisons. Shunted from one holding cell to another, it was Simon who suffered the most. The filth and violence of jail was made worse by knowing it was his supposed friend Sarah who put him there. After 18 days of fear, hunger and confusion Simon and Sarah were separated. Sarah was sent to an easy-going women’s jail while Simon was left to rot in an overcrowded nightmare of a men’s prison.

Ten months later, the Peruvian authorities finally accepted Sarah’s confession and let Simon out of prison. Yet he is still not free; he must stay and wait in Lima, living in a squalid room not much better than a cell. Only when Sarah is sentenced will he find out if he can go home or if he will be thrown back in jail. Yet the Peruvian penal system is so backed up that less than one in eight inmates at Sarah’s prison have been sentenced. Simon could be waiting for years to come.

In November of 2008 Simon was found innocent by the peruvian courts and his UK passport was returned, however the case went to appeal and since then he has been awaiting the papers to be completed in order for him to have a free passage home.

Simon was first arrested on the 10th January 2007 so on the 10th July it will be 2 and a half years.

Simon Burke is innocent and needs to be allowed to return to his Family and Friends in the UK. He is still currently in Peru.