Briton facing six years in Greek jail

She is the daughter of a civil servant who had gone to Greece to make a new life for herself. She had a new boyfriend and was, says her father, "head over heels in love".

But she has just spent Christmas in a Greek jail accused of drug dealing - and faces up to six years behind bars if found guilty.

Rachael Swinden will spend her 24th birthday on New Year's Day in a women's prison in Athens, where she shares a cell with a drug addict and murderer.

She was arrested on the island of Kos when she was allegedly found with eight small packets of cannabis and a set of scales.

Miss Swinden, from Sandy, Bedfordshire, claims she was only carrying the drugs for her Greek boyfriend. Both deny drug dealing.

"I am just a holidaymaker who made a silly mistake, not realising how stiff the laws on use of marijuana are in Greece," she told the court. Her father Geoff, 53, said she was subjected to a violent interrogation after her arrest in September - "slaps around the head" - and was so upset that she did not eat for a week.

"It is quite traumatic," he said. "It's my worst nightmare. The amount of drugs weighed less than a packet of Oxo cubes. Anywhere else in the world she would have got a slap on the wrist."

Miss Swinden and her boyfriend "Sam", 27, have both admitted possessing marijuana for personal use. But they have also been accused of the importation and sale of the drug - a charge they deny.

Police accuse them of running a drugs racket among British holidaymakers. The couple had met at the notorious resort of Faliraki, Rhodes, detectives said, and were allegedly on Kos in an attempt to boost sales. Police chief Stylianos Papadakis said Miss Swinden was found with eight one-gram packets of marijuana and ?705 (?500), allegedly the proceeds of drugs sales.

After her arrest police found scales and a syringe hidden in her mattress, said Mr Papadakis.

Mr Swinden said his daughter had spent most of the last five years in Greece after falling in love with the country during a holiday.

"She was the manager of a shoe shop. We were happy with the way she was making her own way in the world," he said. Then a boyfriend arrived on the scene. "They had only known each other six or eight weeks. They were besotted," added Mr Swinden.

On 9 September he received a call from Greek friends of his daughter saying she was in trouble. By the time he arrived in Greece she was about to appear in court, where she had a panic attack and had to be taken to hospital.

The conditions in the jail on Kos were "atrocious", he said. "She just had a mattress on the floor. She had been bitten by mosquitoes on her face. She had not eaten. The prison food was inedible - I was buying her

He said she had told him that Sam had produced "a small plastic bag of herbal cannabis" and asked her to take three packets to her shop, where friends of his would pick it up.

Then police, who had been watching Sam, arrested her.

Mr Swinden is convinced his daughter's plight is all Sam's fault. "I despise him," he said. But he admits he was surprised to learn his daughter occasionally smoked cannabis.

He and Miss Swinden's mother Mary are appealing against the decision to refuse her bail.