Scot aims for shorter sentence.
Scots drug suspect Melissa Reid is set to plead guilty to smuggling cocaine in Peru.
The 20-year-old is due to go before a judge in the capital Lima on Tuesday.
Had she been found guilty after denying the charges it’s likely she would have been sent down for up to 25 years.
But it’s emerged Reid’s lawyers have struck a plea bargain that could see her walk free in a fraction of that time.
The deal hammered out in the six weeks since Reid and her co-accused Irishwoman Michaella McCollum Connolly were caught trying to smuggle £1.5 million of pure cocaine from the South American country to Spain will see her get six years in
return for admitting her role in the plot.
However, she’s likely to get out in less than half that time if she behaves.
The sensational news comes only days after McCollum Connolly’s lawyers admitted she too could plead guilty.
The dancer will join Reid at the special court hearing in Lima in two days’ time.
The judge was set to grill the girls on their story about being coerced into action by Colombian gangsters if they continued to claim their innocence.
The Peruvian prosecution lawyer building the case against them, Dr Juan Mendoza Abarca, has already dismissed their accounts as a “very well practised” versions of events.
Reid and pal McCollum Connolly who previously claimed they didn’t know each other had insisted they were forced by gangsters to smuggle the drugs.
When they were first arrested in August both vowed to clear their names.
But in recent weeks Reid’s family have urged her to plead guilty during a series of TV interviews.
McCollum Connolly’s family have refused to make any comment on the case.
Speaking on Friday, the County Tyrone woman’s lawyer, Peter Madden, confirmed his client could plead guilty to the judge.
He reportedly said: “I don’t know if she’s going to make a guilty plea next week but it could happen.
“Next week’s hearing isn’t open to the public but the judge will question them about their statements and speak to other witnesses.
“Melissa Reid’s family have already urged her to plead guilty and Michaella is aware of the options available to her.”
Last month, Melissa Reid’s former boyfriend Shane Knowles, a heavily tattooed convicted fraudster, said the girls were “money-hungry” and claimed it was their “own choice” to carry the cocaine.
The pair are currently being held at Lima’s Virgen de Fatima women’s jail a former army barracks which houses some of Peru’s most notorious killers.
We previously revealed how Melissa Reid’s flat-mate in Ibiza was the daughter of a notorious killer.
Enjoy the convenience of having The Sunday Post delivered as a digital ePaper straight to your smartphone, tablet or computer.
Subscribe for only £5.49 a month and enjoy all the benefits of the printed paper as a digital replica.
Subscribe