'I was scared of being raped. When men had sex I just looked away': British charity worker who spent 40 days in terrifying Thai prison reveals how he had to fend off perverts and killers
by Kjaleda Rahman
Daily Mail
April 23, 2018
A British charity worker who spent 40 days in a terrifying Thai prison has told how he feared being raped.
Sean Felton said he was forced to fend off perverts and killers in the soiled confines of the rat maze that is Sakhon Nakon Prison.
He survived in a cramped, squalid cell - home to 50 inmates - on three bowls of rice a day.
He slept on the floor. He bathed with fellow lags in a trough of filthy, dirty water that, stagnant and over-used, stank of decay.
Mr Felton - one of only two Farangs (Westerners) in the teeming hell-hole - witnessed beatings and worse.
At first, he was horrified. Then he became sickened. Then numbness set in.
The 47-year-old founder of Abducted Angels, an organisation dedicated to locating children spirited abroad during acid family fractures, is back home now in the former pit village of Norton Canes, near Cannock.
He first made headlines after going to Thailand to rescue his son who had been taken away by his ex-partner Kim in 2010.
Since last Saturday, he has been home.
But the nightmare of Sakon Nakhon - a nick where life is cheaper than behind bars contraband such as disposable lighters - still hangs from him
He was flung into one of the world's most brutal prisons for simple trespass, a mere misdemeanor here but worthy of a five-year stretch in Thailand.
And he insists he was left to rot without a court appearance or formal charge.
His crime? He helped distraught Scottish father Jodie Smith bring his ten-year-old son Joleon back home.
The pair were arrested after allegations they had entered the estranged wife's home without permission.
Joleon Smith is now back with his father. It is another mission accomplished by Sean, but a mission accomplished at a heavy cost.
The ordeal is written on Mr Felton's face. The harrowing memories contort his features as he discusses time spent in a black pit behind the bamboo curtain.
He has survived, but he is scarred.
'It was horrific,' said the father-of-one without the dimmest flicker of emotion, 'it was torment. I never want to experience it again.
'You were always scared of being raped. Blokes having sex in front of us was every day. You just had to look away.
'If thoughts of your family entered your head, you had to think of something else quickly or you would go downhill. I think if I'd been there longer I would've broken down mentally.'
Mr Felton's time in Sakhon Nakon - Thailand's hidden underbelly - came without warning.
Officers at a village police station chuckled as they announced 'you're going home', then took him in a caged wagon to the facility, little more than a sewage system for lost souls.
He vividly remembers being driven through the prison's huge iron gates.
'I was revved up,' he said, 'I didn't know what I thought. Really, I had no emotions.
'They walked me through a door and I could see a huge exercise yard.. As I walked down the corridor around 600 Thai prisoners ran chanting to the mesh fence.'
The chilling chant was 'you'll die in prison'. It was to become the soundtrack to Mr Felton's time in Sakhon Nakon.
Jodie had arrived inside before him and pulled no punches about the regime.
Three thin blankets, three head counts a day and frequent choruses of the Thai national anthem. Be late for the latter and be clubbed.
Found in possession of a lighter and five years was summarily added to your sentence.
Fighting with a fellow inmate, five years. Answering a guard back, five years... It's easy to build time in Sakhon Nakon.
'Jodie and I spoke, but not a lot,' Mr Felton explained.
'We watched each others' backs, but there were times when we had to walk away and have our own space. We needed our own thoughts.
'The cell was an empty room with two holes in the floor for toilets.
'There was a big fan on the ceiling that was always whirring and the light was on continually. Food was rice - morning, noon and 3pm. The weight just dropped off me, I was getting weaker and weaker.
'The washing room was just a large vat of cold, filthy water. It smelt of crap, it was disgusting.
'Days were spent sitting outside in the burning heat. The Thai prisoners had to work, we weren't allowed to do anything. I kept asking, give me something to do.
'In the main, guards were wary that if anything happened to me, they'd have the embassy on them. But they could be ruthless to the Thais. A lad was a couple of minutes late and got badly beaten with batons.
'In the next cell, a 40-year-old prisoner died at 1am - you could hear the whistles from other prisoners to alert the guards. They moved that body at 3pm the following day.'
The guards may have been restrained, fellow prisoners were not - and it was they, stressed Mr Felton, who effectively ran Sakhon Nakon.
Thankfully, one inmate - the prison's daddy - had time for him.
'He was a kickboxer called Singh and he had a lot of respect in there,' Mr Felton said.
'One day I had a bit of a rant and threw away the slops they gave us with rice.
'He pulled me to one side and said, 'Farang, there are many rules that you must obey'. I told him, 'how can I do that when I don't know the rules?'
'You had to be strong, you had to constantly push prisoners off, you had to stick up for yourself, otherwise it was much worse.
'One day, I was encircled by people I didn't get on with. I thought, 'this is it'. I did panic.'
His unexpected release came just five days before he was due in court - Jodie had been set free only hours earlier.
Jodie's Thai wife Jintra Jummaimuang - accused of snatching their son from Edinburgh - played a key part in the pair's liberation.
She asked for trespass charges to be dropped and agreed to the child's UK return.
Had he faced a judge, he's convinced a five-year sentence would have been imposed.
The ordeal has not blunted his battle to find lost children. He feels it adds weight to the campaign for a global, multi-agency approach to curb the rise in abductions abroad.
'It shook me up,' he added. 'I never want to experience anything like that again and it will take a long time to come to terms with what happened.
'I seem to be going through so much to be a voice for others.
'But it proves what I've said there should be something there to support parents. It needs case workers, police, courts and embassies working together.
'And don't forget, because of what we did, one boy is back home where he belongs.'
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