'Drugs smuggler' wins UK transfer after seven years in rat-infested jail

A former City worker who spent seven years in an Indian jail for alleged drug trafficking has won his battle to serve his sentence in a British prison.

Patrick Malluzzo, 33, was held in one of India's most notorious prisons where he shared a rat-infested cell with 70 other inmates.

Mr Malluzzo, from Dartford, Kent, who always claimed he was forced to sign a false confession after being tortured by Indian police, survived on maggot-infested food and became ill during his time in Kota prison in Rajasthan. But following a campaign led by former MP Ann Widdecombe, the British and Indian governments have struck a deal to allow him to serve the remaining three years of his sentence in Wandsworth prison.

Mr Malluzzo has had a reunion there with his family, whom he had not seen since he left on a backpacking holiday in 2003.

Speaking from the prison, he told the Standard: "It was overwhelming to see my parents and my sister again for the first time in seven years. Words can't really explain what that felt like.

"There are going to be difficult times ahead, but for now I'm just happy to be back in the UK and starting to look forward to freedom."

After two years working at investment bank Kleinwort Benson, Mr Malluzzo went to India in October 2003.

But his holiday turned into a nightmare when his holdall was seized by police along with two other bags that contained 35 packets of hashish.

Documents produced at Mr Malluzzo's trial confirm that no drugs were found in his holdall.

He claimed Indian police denied him access to a lawyer, deprived him of sleep, burned him with cigarettes, beat him with bamboo sticks and used pliers on his genitals to make him confess.

In 2006, after two years in prison on remand, Mr Malluzzo was found guilty of smuggling 19 kilogrammes of cannabis with a street value of £2,000.

At his trial, which was conducted in Hindi, a language he cannot speak, he was sentenced to 10 years and fined 100,000 rupees (£1,200).

His mother Teresa, who sold her home to pay for the fight to free him, said: "I have waited seven years for the day I would be reunited with my son. Now we can start re-building our lives. Throughout this long ordeal we have had huge support, in particular from the Fair Trials International group."

Jago Russell, chief executive of Fair Trials International, said: "It is a travesty of justice that Patrick still has a guilty conviction."

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "The UK has a prisoner transfer agreement with India. We do not comment on individual prisoners."