Opinion

Michaella McCollum is no Pablo Escobar, she deserves a second chance

Much of the criticism of Michaella McCollum, has been based around her appearance.
Much of the criticism of Michaella McCollum, has been based around her appearance. Much of the criticism of Michaella McCollum, has been based around her appearance.

Michaella McCollum, where do I even start? The reaction to the release from prison on parole of the young Dungannon woman has been near on hysterical.

And in the main that reaction was not in relation to the judicial system, or how much time she served in prison but how the 23-year-old now looks.

The former Ibiza party girl, it seems, was made of tougher stuff than I'd given her credit for and looked tanned and healthy with a new blonde hairdo. She also seemed much calmer and more composed than when she was arrested at Lima airport in 2013.

Then, with a pale face, harsh painted on eyebrows and black hair piled on her head in a comedy bun, she looked like a girl who had been partying too hard and was now paying the price for a life of excess.

And pay the price she did, for despite recent claims that she got an easy ride Michaella and her friend Melissa Reid were sentenced according to Puruvian law and received jail terms in line with that country's sentencing guidelines.

Her release on parole is also in line with that country's law and would be available to anyone else sentenced in similar circumstances regardless of how pretty their hair was.

Not for one second do I write this column in justification of Michaella's actions. Drugs and the scourge of drugs is a global epidemic that makes billions for criminals and ruins young lives.

Unlike many of those commenting on social media, I work regularly in the courts and where 15 years ago the majority of those on trial would have used alcohol as a defence now it's crime linked to drug addiction that takes up much of a magistrate's day.

I've also interviewed families who have lost loved ones because of drug addiction and those who have fallen foul of paramilitaries because of their connection to the drugs trade.

I've seen what drugs can do and I've also seen how those who end up in court, hospital or the graveyard are rarely if ever those who are making big money.

They are almost always small time bit players, dealing to feed their own habit rather than to buy flash cars and designer clothes.

Drug barons rarely go to jail because they don't put their hands on the actual drugs, other expendable people take that risk for them.

They certainly don't drag suitcases full of cocaine through an airport frequented by backpackers and gap year students looking like a zombie suffering from the world's worst comedown.

Michaella McCollum was a small cog in a big machine, she was expendable and the people who sent her on that drug run wouldn't have lost a night's sleep over her incarceration as there are plenty more naive and vulnerable young women to take her place.

Among the comments heard on social media were, 'she wouldn't get that sympathy if she were a bald middle aged man'.

She wouldn't have been in Peru in the first place if she were a bald, middle aged man because drug smugglers don't target middle aged men, they target attractive young women who are easily manipulated and coerced.

Regardless of how well groomed she appeared on RTE Michaella McCollum spent over two years of her life in prison and potentially another two in Peru on parole working for the Church.

She was arrested and imprisoned, as was right given the crime she committed, but she's a 23-year-old woman not Pablo Escobar and she has served her time.

Prison is meant to - but rarely does - rehabilitate. Michaella McCollum emerged from jail looking and sounding like a different person, she looks rehabilitated to me.

She learned Spanish while behind bars and during her last court appearance was able to dispense with the court appointed interpreter. She made good use of her time in jail and seems genuinely remorseful.

She owes no one an apology other than her own family who stood by her. If a child has a dirty face you bring it in and wash it, you don't leave it in the street, and Michaella's mother did exactly what I would have done if faced with the same awful set of circumstances.

You can't call yourself a feminist and then criticise another woman for not emerging from prison in a dishevelled enough state, or attack a young woman for making a mistake and then condemn her for trying to rectify it.

There has been much talk of Michaella cashing in on her crime, but as of now all I've seen is an RTE interview she wasn't paid for.

If she does appear on the next series of Big Brother then you can condemn me for defending her, just don't include comments about how my hair looks.