Yorkshireman in jail over drugs facing death by firing squad

Roofer Gareth Cashmore, 33, was arrested a year ago by customs officers who said 6.5kg of methamphetamine, commonly known as crystal meth, had been found hidden in a compartment in his suitcase.

The father-of-one is thought to have been on a long-haul flight from Manchester, which stopped in Istanbul, Turkey, before heading to Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta Airport, where he was arrested.

He was originally sentenced to life imprisonment but it has now emerged that judges have raised the penalty to death after an appeal hearing in May.

From his cell, Cashmore told the Sun: “I’ve got a son, how would you feel?

“I hope to be out to see him before he’s grown up. I’ll survive this by hook or by crook.”

The court had been told Cashmore, whose toddler son is called Harley, was carrying crystal meth worth £800,000 for a local narcotics ring when he arrived at Jakarta airport.

A panel of judges at Banten High Court in Indonesia reportedly changed the sentence after deciding life imprisonment would not send out a strong enough message as a deterrent and concluding there were no mitigating factors. Indonesia has some of the world’s strictest anti-drug laws.

Cashmore’s mother Lynne asked reporters: “Can you tell me why the Bali bomber only got 20 years and he was responsible for more than 200 people’s deaths?

“My son has admitted he’s done wrong and he’s got the death penalty.

“I speak to him every day. It’s a terrible situation.”

Some 140 people are on death row in Indonesia for drug offences, one third of whom are foreigners.

Four other Britons, Lindsay Sandiford, Julian Ponder, Paul Beales and Rachel Dougall, face execution in Indonesia if convicted of cocaine smuggling. The suspects were held after British housewife Lindsay Sandiford, 55, was allegedly caught with 11lb of cocaine stuffed in the lining of a suitcase as she arrived in Bali.