The Damage Done: Twelve Years Of Hell In A Bangkok Prison

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The thing that keeps me going is the hope that one day I’ll get out and see my wife and kids again. Paul Hayward

You know, there's one American here who has a video set up - and gets all these movies. There's another guy, a Canadian who was John Walker's case partner, he's got a hut built and has Thais who carry water for him, act as servants.Sheffield four-piece band Harrisons penned a song entitled "Simmer Away" after reading The Damage Done.

Paul Hayward was a tough, pugnacious five-eighth from Newtown, a scrapper in the old Bluebag tradition — who mixed professional boxing with his rugby league career.

William McLain, thirty-seven, has a long record of criminal convictions most recently sentenced to prison for manslaughter in 1972; a BL associate of fifteen years’ duration, heroin salesman and courier. David Kelleher, twenty-five, criminal sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment on rape charges in 1973; ‘long-time associate’ of BL, heroin bulk distributor. It was over an hour before a suntanned, but pathetically thin man with almost crew-cut length hair ran urgently into the cage. "Are you from Rugby League Week?" he asked.

Two unexpected but compelling things happened after publication that was preceded by an advertising campaign on Channel 9, which led to that particular RLW issues being one of the most read. He entered the cage in a rush, nervous, the adrenalin obviously pumping at the thought of seeing someone from home. I later found out I was only the third visitor, other than the embassy guys and the missionary groups, for three years.After constant delays, it took until July 1981 before Hayward, Fellows, Sinclair and taxi driver Kitty Imsap were sentenced. Hayward received 20 years, lighter than the others because "he was used by the narcotics syndicate" while the other three were sentenced to 33 years and eight months each (Hayward and Fellows later had two years added to their sentence after being caught with heroin inside Bang Kwang). But he is paying dearly. He is repentant. He knows he did wrong. And for Christ's sake, he's a human being and was once a good, gutsy footballer. Twelve sleep along one wall, 13 on another and two guys in the middle. And then there's the can of water - it's the toilet. You wake up at 5am busting for a leak and you can't go because the bloody thing's full. Man, it's pretty bad." Fellows was a trusted foot-soldier for an outfit dubbed the Anti A Team, said to be led by Michael Carroll. Fellows revealed in his book that notorious criminal Arthur "Neddy" Smith organised the deal. Smith was in a de facto relationship with Hayward's sister-in-law, and that is how they met.

Seconds later I saw a man marching down the pathway past the gardens. Ginger beard and longish sandy-reddish hair, dressed in light blue Indian shirt and red shorts. "Gee, he looks well." What do you say in parting to a man sentenced to the ultimate misery? When it sinks in that you are returning to a luxury hotel and then home to your family ... and he will return to an overcrowded, stinking cell. Telling the story of Warren Fellows, 4,000 Days is more-or-less exactly what the cover promises. Told in a simple, straight-forward style, it is a loose and hurried account of a man's experiences being ruined in the Bangkok prison system. While it is certainly gruesome from cover to cover, it is not a collection of unbelievably horrible things. It is instead a collection of perfectly credible horrible things, and although the author never forces details down your throat, he manages to get the point across of just how much time passed before he was finished coping with the abuse piled on him daily.The only sympathy was for Gail and his three children. Bradley, 12, Kellie, nine, and Belinda, the daughter he has never seen, born months after his arrest. He did return, in April 1989 – 10 and a half years after having a .38 police pistol held to his temple in his Bangkok hotel. He'd received a pardon for his good behavior by the king of Thailand as part of his 60th birthday celebrations. Earlier it had been reported Hayward had tested HIV positive due to using a contaminated heroin syringe while in jail. The general theme was there was no room for such a non-football story in a rugby league magazine, that I was too sympathetic to Hayward. Often cited was one particular paragraph I wrote: "OK, he is branded a drug runner, a criminal. Some may say 'let him rot in hell'. But he is paying dearly. He is repentant. He knows he did wrong. And for Christ's sake, he's a human being and was once a good, gutsy footballer."