A British mother could spend up to 20 years in a Cambodian prison after authorities allegedly found 34.5kg of cannabis in her luggage as she tried to leave the country.

Tamara Martins, from Croydon, says she was deliberately framed. According to the 31-year-old, a man she met in a bar offered to pay her to take a suitcase containing electronics back to Britain.

She maintains that she had no idea drugs were inside the luggage until she was detained at Techo Airport, where officials reportedly discovered 71 packets of marijuana among her belongings.

Cambodia enforces some of the region’s toughest drug laws, and trafficking offences can result in life imprisonment.

Martins’s younger brother Trey, 29, told the Daily Mail that he is now caring for her ten-year-old daughter while trying to secure legal assistance for his sister from more than 6,000 miles away.

“I didn’t even know she was in Cambodia until she called me,” he said. “All I could hear was her crying. She kept saying, ‘I’ve been arrested. I’ve been arrested.’”

Trey said his sister sounded distressed and confused during the call, repeatedly asking whether he could help and apologising for what had happened.

He said he was stunned by the allegations, adding: “She’s never been arrested for anything drug-related and she’s never been involved in that kind of lifestyle.”

Martins was initially able to speak with Trey during her first few days at a tourist detention facility.

“At first, she told me the officers had been kind to her,” Trey said. “They allowed her to use her phone and smoke.”

She was later moved to CC2 women’s prison, where her phone was taken away and, according to her family, her living conditions became considerably worse.

In a letter to Trey seen by the Daily Mail, Martins described the prison as “hell” and wrote that she had been unable to sleep or eat properly.

“I have to try not to think too much about life at home, otherwise I’ll die from a broken heart,” she wrote. “It’s really difficult and hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

She also appealed for financial help, saying the situation was so difficult that prisoners without money were left “in the gutter.”

Trey claims his sister cannot reliably obtain food, clothing or essential sanitary products unless she has money available.

He said she is being held in a cell shared by more than 66 inmates, with some prisoners reportedly forced to sleep on the bare floor because there are not enough bunk beds.

Martins has also reportedly been left without underwear and had to borrow some from another inmate.

A report of a visit by British Embassy consular staff, seen by the Daily Mail, said Martins expressed concern about sharing accommodation with prisoners living with HIV and other illnesses.

For Tamara, who works as a model booker in London, one of the hardest parts of her predicament is being separated from her ten-year-old daughter. 

She is wondering where her mum is, Trey says, but he has not told her the truth about the situation, instead telling the child Tamara has been stuck in a blackout.

‘She doesn’t know that her mum has been arrested. She’s calm. I’ve told her, “Your mum’s all right. She’s good. Don’t worry about it. She’s doing the best she can”.’

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Trey describes his sister as a ‘kind’ person who will ‘always be there for you’.

‘My sister and I didn’t always get on, but I would give my heart or my lung to her. I would swap places with her right now if I could. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy,’ he says.

Tamara is now one of the 355 Brits detained in Southeast Asia after being accused of being recruited as drug mules. 

Young people are lured by gangs and often incentivised to carry luggage for a fee without knowing its contents. 

Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty issued a warning earlier this year of harsh treatment if detained overseas.

Mr Doughty said: ‘No holiday, payment or opportunity is worth risking your freedom, your future or your life.’

He added: ‘Detainees are warning about the dire living conditions they now face decades of in prison or, in some countries, the possibility of the death penalty.’

According to research commissioned by the Foreign Office, a staggering third of young Brits surveyed did not consider travelling with a suitcase packed by someone else to be a risk. 

Trey, who now faces the possibility of being separated from his sister for decades, has urged Britons travelling abroad to exercise extreme caution in Cambodia. 

‘The same people who did this to her, who approached her – where are they? They’re just going to escape and move on to the next person because nobody knows them, nobody knows where they’re from and nobody knows how to contact them.

‘It’s free game for them. The person at the other end who has to deal with it is her.

‘In hindsight, you can say she was an idiot for accepting something like that, but people make choices for whatever reasons. They can’t always be good choices. It’s a shame.’

Laura Bevan, Director of Prisoner and Family Support at Prisoners Abroad, said the organisation is supporting the highest ever number of people facing the death penalty linked to drug arrests.

‘Sentences for drugs offences are much harsher than we would expect here in the UK, and this includes the death penalty in some places,’ she told the Daily Mail.

‘We have heard anecdotal stories from family members that their relative has been led into carrying drugs after being promised a free or cheap holiday abroad, coerced by a new group they have become involved with, or duped at the end of the holiday into carrying drugs without feeling they have the option to say no. 

Bevan said that arrests for drug-related offences by 46 per cent to 355 cases in the last year.

‘The demographic of the people arrested on these charges was also markedly different from what we are used to seeing, with 28 per cent of the new arrests being women and 67 per cent under 35,’ she added.

‘The number of new cases of women in prison increased overall by 82 per cent last year with 115 new cases compared to 63 the year before. 61 per cent of women were detained on drug-related offences, compared to 44 per cent of men.’

Trey has set up a GoFundMe to cover his sister’s legal fees, which can be found here.

An FCDO Spokesperson told the Daily Mail: ‘We are supporting a British National detained in Cambodia and are in contact with the local authorities.’

It has been a tumultuous three weeks since Lindsay Clancy’s trial ended in a mistrial inside a packed courtroom in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

A bitter public dispute soon erupted between several jurors and the lone holdout, who gave up his anonymity to speak with the media and accuse the man of failing to apply the legal standard for reasonable doubt.

The holdout, Michael Desronvil, retained a prominent attorney, who forcefully defended his client’s conduct in the jury room while exchanging angry criticism with Clancy’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, over remarks made publicly.

On Monday night, Desronvil ended his silence in a video statement to Fox News host Sean Hannity, saying, “we want to reel everything back and put the focus on the three angels.”

Reddington has made several television appearances of his own, including one in which he urged President Donald Trump to address the closely watched case.

Patrick Clancy, Lindsay Clancy’s former husband and the father of their late children—Cora, Dawson and Callan—also appeared on 60 Minutes. During the interview, he disclosed that he and his new wife, Dr. Rachel Danis, are expecting their first child together.

On Tuesday morning, Clancy is due back in Plymouth County Superior Court for the first time since the trial ended. The hearing could determine the next chapter of her case.

The status hearing may set the stage for a second trial over the deaths of her three children—or bring her criminal case to a permanent close.

Defense attorney Kevin Reddington is expected to argue several motions aimed at preventing the state from retrying the mother of three. One seeks a finding of not guilty because she lacked criminal responsibility, while another asks the court to dismiss every charge under double jeopardy protections.

The defense is also seeking records and other material related to the holdout juror, including cellphone data, courthouse surveillance footage and access to his juror questionnaire.

Prosecutors could also outline whether they intend to try Clancy again and, if so, whether they will pursue the same charges or lesser ones.

Should Judge William Sullivan grant the defense’s requests to dismiss the case or find Clancy not guilty, the criminal proceedings could end entirely.

If the motions are rejected and prosecutors choose to proceed with a retrial, the court could schedule a second trial.

The hearing is therefore shaping up to be a pivotal moment in a case that has drawn worldwide attention, prompted renewed discussion of postpartum mental health and continued to divide public opinion. It has also fueled controversy and left questions about what happened behind the jury-room doors unanswered.

Clancy was charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her children: five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson and eight-month-old Callan. Prosecutors say the killings occurred inside the family’s home in the affluent Massachusetts suburb of Duxbury on January 24, 2023.

The 36-year-old labor and delivery nurse allegedly strangled the children with exercise bands in the basement after sending Patrick out to run errands.

She then attempted suicide by cutting her wrists and neck before jumping from a second-floor bedroom window.

Clancy survived but was left paralyzed from the waist down.

The mom-of-three did not deny killing her children but pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, saying she was suffering from severe postpartum depression and psychosis at the time.

Over five weeks of testimony, jurors heard Patrick’s devastating 911 call, saw graphic photos of the children’s autopsies, learned details of Clancy’s spiraling mental health in the months leading up to the killings and listened to dueling diagnoses from psychiatrists and mental health experts.

Ultimately, the 12 jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict after Desronvil refused to join the other 11 in finding her not guilty by reason of insanity.

A mistrial was declared on September 4 following 38 hours of deliberations over seven days, leaving the case in limbo.

What happens next will however soon become clear as the two sides return to court for an anticipated showdown over several motions filed by the defense in the days and weeks since the mistrial – all aimed at avoiding a second trial.

In one motion, Reddington is asking the judge to enter a finding of not guilty on all charges arguing that the prosecution does not have sufficient evidence to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Clancy was in control of her actions when she strangled her children.

The defense argues that the state failed to prove its case on both points needed to find her criminally responsible: whether or not she was suffering a mental defect or disease at the time, and whether or not she could still control her actions or conform to the law despite her mental illness.

The state’s own witnesses struck down the first point, with every expert witness on both sides agreeing that Clancy was seriously mentally ill at the time of the killings.

On the second point, the defense says the prosecution presented evidence which shows she could perform familiar tasks in a bid to try to prove she was in control of her actions.

But Reddington argues that psychiatrist Dr Paul Zeizel gave ‘unrebutted testimony’ that someone in a state of psychosis can carry out familiar tasks such as driving and that hallucinations are intermittent, not constant.

‘Taken at their strongest, these show that Ms Clancy could perform familiar tasks and act in sequence. They do not show that she could appreciate her wrongfulness or conform her conduct to the law. That is the element. Nothing else counts,’ the filing argues.

The state’s insufficient evidence is the basis of an acquittal on all charges, the defense argues.

A separate filing, brought on September 21 by Reddington and Clancy’s new defense attorney Martin Weinberg, pursues an alternative way to stave off a retrial.

The motion to dismiss seeks to throw out the case altogether, arguing a second trial would break double jeopardy laws.

The argument centers on Judge Sullivan’s handling of the jury ruckus during deliberations and his decision to ultimately declare a mistrial.

In an unprecedented final 24 hours of trial, the jury foreperson sent two messages to the judge accusing the then-unidentified holdout of expressing reasonable doubt, but of refusing to follow the law when it came to reasonable doubt.

In open court, Reddington called for the holdout to be struck from the case or to at least to face further questioning.

Judge Sullivan declined.

Just hours later, after the jury returned deadlocked again and a last-ditch Hail Mary bid from the defense failed, a mistrial was declared.

Clancy’s legal team is now arguing that the judge failed to properly probe the holdout juror and the claims made by the foreperson, and so ‘extinguished a viable alternative to the declaration of a mistrial.’

A thorough inquiry could have removed the need for a mistrial and so a second trial would be a violation of double jeopardy laws, the filing reads.

‘We have a jury that was calling out for help, not once but twice informing the Court that its deliberations were being hijacked by a juror’s disregard of the Court’s instructions.’

Desronvil has said through his attorney Edward Paltzik that he has ‘zero doubt’ about Clancy’s guilt, based on what was described as ‘mountains of evidence.’

The defense is also calling for an investigation into Desronvil and seeking his juror questionnaire, phone records and information about his own brushes with the law.

It emerged following the trial that Desronvil was arrested for domestic violence in 2021. The case was later dropped but he still had an active restraining order against him while serving as a juror in the case.

Fellow juror Nick Dargie also claimed that Desronvil was scrolling on his phone during deliberations.

Clancy’s defense points to both factors, asking the judge to probe both whether Desronvil was truthful during jury selection and his use of his phone during the trial.

Reddington wants the court to extract Desronvil’s cell phone records for the period from 8.30am to 4.30pm from August 27 through September 4, the days the jury was deliberating.

The defense also wants access to the juror questionnaires and for the court to examine whether or not Desronvil was truthful given that prior arrests and legal proceedings are standard questions on the juror questionnaire completed at the start of the selection process.

On Monday, Desronvil’s attorney Paltzik told Fox News’s Kayleigh McEnany that the defense motion has now been adjourned – sparking a furious response from Reddington who said that it is ‘fully alive’ but that the defense and prosecution had agreed to continue it to a later date at the request of a local attorney representing the juror.

It will be up to the judge whether or not the matter will be discussed in court on Tuesday.

On the eve of the hearing, Desronvil broke his silence to say that he wants the focus of the case to return to Clancy’s three children, rather than himself.

‘I know the whole focus has been on me but we want to reel everything back and put the focus on the three angels, the ones that cannot speak for themselves, the ones that that can’t defend themselves, and the ones that cannot fight the battles. And those are Cora, Dawson and Callan,’ he said in a video statement on Hannity.

He then went on to ‘thank god for blessing me with the ability to love my daughter,’ and share his gratitude for those that have supported him.

‘Your prayers, your emotional support, your psychological support, is tremendous to my heart- that I feel, that I sense, that I know. I do want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you,’ Desronvil said. 

Paltzik told McEnany that Desronvil will not be attending Tuesday’s hearing, as the attorney continued to hit out at Reddington and threatened to file a bar complaint against him. 

The prosecution has not yet responded to any of the defense’s arguments.

In fact, while Reddington has made multiple TV appearances since the mistrial was declared, the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office has remained silent.

The only public comments came in a press briefing in the immediate aftermath of the mistrial ruling, where DA Tim Cruz said there would be ‘no decisions made today’ regarding whether or not to retry Clancy.

More than three weeks have now passed and the state is yet to reveal how they plan to proceed with the case.

Prosecutors are now likely weighing whether any second trial could end more favorably to them after 11 jurors agreed with the insanity defense.

They will also likely be considering the toll of a second trial on the other victims, notably Patrick who suffered a panic attack while testifying at trial.

The two sides could ultimately decide to reach a plea agreement to spare all involved from going through the lengthy, deeply distressing and costly case all over again.

It’s something that Reddington suggested he would be open to in an interview with GMA earlier this month.

While unclear if any conversations have yet been held between the two sides, the hearing may offer a glimpse into where those negotiations may stand or where they could fall.

On Tuesday, Judge Sullivan could take all of the matters under advisement and rule at a later date.

But it’s also possible that, by the end of the day, there could be no case, a new trial date set or a plea deal in the works for Lindsay Clancy.