A VULNERABLE teenager being held in prison in Japan on drug smuggling charges has spoken about his ordeal for the first time.
Autistic Sean Stephenson, 19, from Charlton, London, was arrested at Tokyo Airport in June after his suitcase was found to contain more than 10kg of methamphetamine.
Ami LeeSean Stephenson, 19, was arrested in June[/caption]
Ami leeHe’s written a letter to his family from his cell[/caption]
GettyHe revealed he’s been moved to a new prison[/caption]
His family are adamant drug gangs have taken advantage of the teen, having allegedly groomed him into travelling first to Portugal and Canada before being caught in the Japanese capital.
Sean sent a letter back home to his family – the contents of which have been shared with The Sun – in which he admits “I’m scared” and reveals he’s been moved to a new facility which is “so strict”.
Written in his cell, the young man penned the note on his birthday last month, telling his loved ones: “Dear family and friends, I hope you’re all doing good. I’m okay.
“I can’t believe I’m 19 today. I miss you all so much, please be assured that I’m coming back and I know we will meet again some sunny day.
“To be completely honest with you, this new place they have sent me is so strict and they make you buy the majority of your necessities.
“To be honest, I’m scared. I love you to the moon and back. Lots of love, Seany.”
Arrest at Tokyo Airport
Sean was arrested on June 21 after he was found with a locked suitcase containing the illegal substances.
Though legally an adult, Sean has a much younger mental age and is eager to make new friends – something his family say was taken advantage of.
He has multiple physical and mental health challenges and was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) aged five.
Everything his family know about his movements has come through information provided by his solicitor in Japan, but they’re unable to speak to him directly.
It was through Sean’s legal rep that his family were able to contact him and exchange multiple letters.
Sean’s sister, Ami Lee, who has three children of her own, told The Sun: “Some of the letters he’s written, he thinks he’s going to come home and he hasn’t got a family.
“That we’re going to disown him. All these thoughts running through his head.
“In some letters he’s saying he’s okay, then he’s saying ‘I’m not doing so great today but hope to speak to you soon’.
“He says ‘please don’t give up on me, my worry is that you’ll leave and disown me’.
“Then it’s another week, three weeks, until we get another letter.”
Ami has been fighting to find out what’s happening to her younger brother nearly 6,000 miles away and last saw him on June 14 at her daughter’s birthday.
She added: “I’m still up all the time, constantly, you know, worrying about my brother.
GettySean was arrested at Tokyo Airport[/caption]
GettySean is alleged to have had meth in a locked suitcase[/caption]
Ami LeeThe teenager’s family are adamant he was groomed by underworld figures[/caption]
“My phone’s constantly ringing at 12 o’clock at night, it’s the solicitor and I’m worrying if my brother’s okay, I’m not sleeping.”
She has been desperately trying to raise enough funds for Sean’s legal fees and he said in a previous letter that he’d “really like to keep this solicitor”.
“The lawyers are asking for £1,000 a month, we’re trying to find a venue for a fundraiser, we’re doing scratch cards but a lot of people don’t want to be associated because of the drugs,” she said.
But now, Ami has since revealed that they can no longer afford Sean’s legal fees as they weren’t able to raise enough, leaving him “very upset”.
“We’re just in limbo at the moment, trying to see who he’s new solicitor will be,” she said.
“The only contact we’ve got now is with the embassy. This means all contact is kind of at a halt, it’s very, very minimal.”
‘My son was groomed and trafficked’
Having never travelled abroad before, let alone by himself, Sean’s disappearance stunned the entire family.
Out of the blue, he became adamant he wanted to go on a solo foreign trip but then vanished overseas on Father’s Day morning and the family later received news that he had been detailed in Japan.
Sean’s mum, Star Lee, 57, has also spoken to The Sun and described the ordeal as “torture”.
Ami LeeSean, who has autism, is very vulnerable[/caption]
“I’m in limbo, my son is in Japan, he’s got ASD, he was groomed and trafficked. I just need to tell my boy it’s going to be okay,” she said.
“I haven’t seen him since June, I haven’t spoken to him. Every day is hard, and it’s getting harder. Justice needs to be done.”
His family describe him as extremely vulnerable with a mental age of “12 to 13 years old”.
They describe him as “so helpful and kind” – he was Star’s carer and, before his grandmother passed away in February, he “did not leave her bedside” and would get her medication everyday from the chemist, she explained.
Star added: “He’s never in trouble, he’s not rude to everyone, everyone around here loves Sean.
“The support in the community has been unbelievable, everyone’s come together because they love him.
“Even one woman said ‘he used to carry my bag when he used to see me struggling’, he never brought the police to my door, nothing.”
Brit ‘drug mule’, 23, facing death penalty after ‘20lbs of crystal meth found in suitcase’ went to £70k-a-year school
By Sayan Bose
A BRIT facing a possible death penalty for allegedly smuggling crystal meth went to a £70,000-a-year boarding school, it has emerged.
George Wilson, 23, appeared in court today, charged with trying to take 9.15kg of methamphetamine out of Bangkok’s international airport.
The baby-faced British man is said to belong to a family of a multimillionaire with links to the heavy metal band Iron Maiden.
Wilson, who was caught by Thai police yesterday with packs of Chinese tea concealing what appeared to be drugs, attended the prestigious Hurst Lodge School in Surrey.
It is one of the most expensive boarding schools in the country where fees can go up to £70,000 per academic year.
Sarah Ferguson, TV presenter Emma Forbes and actors Juliet Stephenson and Belinda Stewart-Wilson are among its former students.
The Brit grew up in luxury in Marlow in Berkshire, according to the Daily Mail.
A family friend told the publication: “It’s astonishing that someone from such a well-heeled background could find himself caught up in this – no one could believe it when we saw the reports of George’s arrest.”
According to the newspaper, George’s family wealth comes from a hugely successful relative in the music industry who helped raise him from a young age.
A second source said: “George is a very well-brought-up and mild-mannered young man. You would never expect him to be in a situation like this.
“As far as I know he doesn’t even drink, let alone have any involvement in drugs.”
Cops swooped on a hotel in the Thai capital’s red-light area after tracking a drug gang’s movements.
A video shot by officers at the scene showed them detaining George and asking him what was in his bag.
He replied, “I don’t know,” as the police opened the case and looked under a pair of flip-flops and a white towel.
They found ten bags of Chinese tea, which concealed what appeared to be drugs.
The Brit insisted, “I don’t know what it is,” but he was arrested after the officers opened the bags and performed a test to prove the drug was methamphetamine.
Wilson, of High Wycombe, Bucks, who told officers he had been in Thailand for two weeks, was then photographed in handcuffs with eight Thai cops next to him.
Lieutenant Colonel Noppha Thongbo, from the Lumpini district station in Bangkok, said: “He is currently in police custody and will be taken to the Bangkok South Criminal Court for detention in prison.”
The police said Wilson had told them he had been given a pink suitcase by another Brit known as Snoopy.
He asked him to take it through Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport to another country where an associate would meet him.
But officers said they had been tracking the suspects for a number of days and pounced when CCTV from the hotel showed the drugs had been delivered.
They said the crystal meth, known locally as ‘Ice’, is thought to have been produced in drugs labs in Myanmar before being transported to Thailand for international distribution.
Colonel Siranawitcha Intorn, of the Crime Suppression Division, added: “The amount of drugs seized was very large.”
Under Thai law, importing or exporting Category 1 narcotics such as methamphetamine carries the death penalty, although it is rarely used.
It comes after teenage drug mule suspect Bella Culley is fighting for her release after she was caught with £200,000 worth of drugs in Georgia on a flight from Thailand in May.
The 19-year-old, who is also pregnant, told a court in Tbilisi she was tortured into trafficking the drugs.
While mum Cameron Bradford, 21, was detained at Munich Airport for allegedly smuggling cannabis in her bags on a flight from Thailand.
Sean’s sister believes he was picked up outside a Nisa shop one morning by a man who had befriended him and escorted him to Heathrow Airport.
His phone and bank cards were taken and he was given a Nokia so he couldn’t contact his family and arrangements were made for Sean to meet another man in Toronto.
According to the solicitor at the time, Sean received threats to “break his legs and hurt his family” if he didn’t go to Canada.
From Toronto he was handed the suitcase of drugs to take to Tokyo where he was told it was money to be dropped to a “friend”, she claims.
“They sold him a dream, they sold my boy a dream. He’s a good boy,” Star said.
They sold him a dream, they sold my boy a dream. He’s a good boy.
Starr Lee
“God knows what they’ve done to my boy. Took his phone off him, took all communication from him as soon as he got to the airport and then bullied him from there. He must be frightened and scared.
“It’s not fair they’ve taken my boy’s life away from him.”
Asked what she would say to Sean if she could speak to him on the phone, she said: “Oh, that everybody loves him. I love him.
“That it’s not his fault, not his fault at all. I don’t want him to feel like that.
“I love and miss him and just want my boy home. I feel like I’ve lost him, I’m grieving for my boy, and it’s making me ill.”
‘I don’t know anything’
Star added that she thinks there’s “not enough support for my son” in Japan and said “I haven’t even got a photo to know that he’s okay”.
Star also highlighted the lack of support she’s received since her son disappeared, saying she felt “very let down” by the system.
“I don’t know anything, I don’t know know when he’s in court. I just feel like I’m going mad. It’s horrible and there’s just no one helping me.
“The police haven’t even rung me, my son’s going to trial, they told us he’s looking at 10 to 14 years.
“His vulnerable, he’s tried to take his life before”.
“I just feel let down by everyone really, I wrote to the MP. He never got back to me. The embassy’s hard to get on with as they have their own laws. They might have their own laws, but surely I’m entitled to hear my son from a phone call?
“I feel like the system’s let my son down, we really do as there’s other kids out there you know, like mine’s out there. Other people in this area are vulnerable with disabilities.”
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