The father of a Scots teenager has been reunited with his daughter following her arrest for allegedly attempting to import £1.5million of cocaine out of Peru.
William Reid brushed back a waiting pack of journalists outside the police station in Lima, where Melissa Reid, 20 today, is being held.
She was arrested at Peru's main airport last week with co-accused Michaella McCollum Connolly, 20, from Northern Ireland.
Inside the police station where she remained handcuffed, Mr Reid, from Lenzie, East Dunbartonshire, was able to hug his daughter for the first time since her ordeal began.
Mr Reid, who would not comment, is there to support his daughter ahead of her first appearance in court on drugs charges next week. He had previously described her as being emotional and scared of what lay before her.
It came as McCollum Connolly's lawyer Peter Madden confirmed that the 20-year-old from Dungannon, Co Tyrone, would deny any allegations but warned that legal proceedings could be lengthy. He said his client was doing well in police custody but it was a difficult position for a "young girl" to be in.
His model client and Scotswoman Melissa are suspected by detectives of trying to leave the country with £1.5 million of cocaine in their luggage.
They were detained while trying to board a flight from the Peruvian capital to Spain last week.
Mr Madden said: "She is saying she has done nothing wrong, that she is innocent and that as far as any offences are concerned, if she is charged she will be denying it."
Mr Madden, a hugely experienced lawyer, is due to attend a preliminary court hearing in Lima but wants to arrange local legal representation while she is questioned by police and intends to stay there at least a week. He arrives tomorrow.
The women claimed they are victims of a violent gang who coerced them into carrying the drugs, and said they have resigned themselves to the likelihood that they face a lengthy prison term.
Police are waiting for a translator before officially questioning them, which is expected to happen in the next few days.
Ms Reid and Ms McCollum Connolly have claimed they were given the 24lb of cocaine outside their hotel, the Hotel Colonial San Agustin in the capital Lima, the day before they were due to fly back to Spain.
The pair, who deny drug trafficking, claimed they were ordered at gunpoint by Colombian gangsters to smuggle the drugs out of Lima.
The two women had been working on the Spanish island of Ibiza, where they said they were snared by a drug cartel, robbed of their passports and phones and followed as they travelled on separate flights from Spain to Peru.
Once in South America, they said they were ordered to carry the cocaine hidden inside food packets.
Mr Madden said his client, who does not speak Spanish, found herself in a confusing situation.
Ms Reid and Ms McCollum Connolly may be held pre-charge for up to 30 days and could then spend up to three years in prison before a trial.
Mr Madden said: "It could be a long time. It is a question of considering what the state prosecutor is proposing to do."
If convicted, they could face lengthy sentences in an overcrowded Peruvian prison where they will have to pay for everything, including food and bedding, sources close to the justice regime said.
Mr Madden added: "She sounded well, she is in a difficult position, it is a difficult position for a young girl to be in that environment."
He is one of Northern Ireland's best-known lawyers and has been involved in a number of high profile cases.
A former colleague of murdered human rights solicitor Pat Finucane who was shot dead by loyalists in north Belfast in 1989, he was involved in the legal representation of three Irish republicans who were arrested in 2001 in Colombia for allegedly training members of FARC. They eventually returned to Ireland in 2005.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article