A BRIT dad jailed on unfounded spying charges has told how he was crammed into a tiny rat-infested cell for 100 days.
Richard Perham, 30, recounted to The Sun how he and fellow Brit Paul Inch, 50, embarked on a four-day mission to retrieve a downed research balloon in Guinea, only to find themselves imprisoned for three months.
Just two days into their journey, Richard, hailing from Bristol, and Paul, from Blaenau Ffestiniog, were detained and faced accusations from local authorities of espionage, sedition, breaching national defense regulations, and unauthorized airspace intrusion.
They were incarcerated in Conakry Central Prison, one of the most overcrowded and perilous prisons in West Africa, operating at 475 percent of its intended capacity.
The Brits claim they were extorted, threatened with sexual and physical violence, and pushed to the brink – not knowing if or when they were going to get let out.
After returning to the UK just over a week ago, Richard recalled the nightmare he has lived since the beginning of the year.
He told The Sun: “Day to day we were facing challenges such as hygiene, cramped conditions, distressing things – maybe we were seeing violence.
“We were staying in a cell the size of a train carriage – and that was housing about 80 people.
“And during the night, when everyone was sleeping, the whole floor was covered with mattresses, people sleeping, two by two, one, two people to one mattress.
“[We] were all sharing one toilet, one shower, the place was really unhygienic.”
To avoid being transferred to a more violent section of the prison, the two Brits were forced to make regular extortion payments to prisoners and staff.
There were also no guards stationed inside cell blocks.
And Richard described how diseases such as malaria were rampant in the hellhole jail.
The water was so contaminated they had to disinfect their skin after washing – and both men suffered dehydration, gastrointestinal illnesses, and skin infections.
Richard said: “There were open sewers. There were rats running around in the rafters, and you know, sometimes even dropping down and running over us whilst we were sleeping.
“It was really difficult, as you can imagine.”
Brave Richard and Paul thought their nightmare was finally over 60 days later when they were told they were being let go.
But at this point, they unknowingly had 82 days of hell to go.
Richard said: “We had the embassy waiting at the gates to collect us.
“We packed our things up, we gave away things to other prisoners, and we signed out of the prison.
“This all took about an hour and was really emotional. It was really high, and also really nerve wracking.
“We hadn’t been out of the prison, for, two months at that point.
“We got to the outer gate, at which point one of the guards made a phone call to the local prosecutor and we were turned around and marched back in which was absolutely crushing.
“It just totally smashed us.”
Another 40 days passed of being locked up in the hellhole slammer – with the pair living in “fear for our lives each day” and only being able to contact family members via letter.
Richard said he “missed the first steps and first words of my baby daughter” which he “can never get back”.
And Paul’s detention saw him torn away from his wife, their five children, and his three brothers.
Richard explained how survival became his “full time job” where he either had the choice to “survive or give in”.
Describing just how he got through it, he said: “I just had to pull on all of the tools I’ve learned over my life to stay strong, basically.
“That involved things like meditation, daily routines involving exercise, and as I said, pulling on the resilience.
“I’ve learned from some of the sports I do regularly.
“I like to run ultra marathons, and I do a lot of rock climbing and mountaineering, and through this I’ve learned to be resilient and to have sort of focus and make the right decisions that are gonna get you through.”
On the 100th day, Richard and Paul were finally freed, but neither of them could process their ordeal and instead focused on putting “one foot in front of the other”.
Richard explained: “We packed our things, said our goodbyes and left the prison, and we left in the clothes we were wearing which was a pair of shorts, flip-flops, and a vest.
“We left with our lawyer with a rucksack and two massive plastic bags in each hand, and we walked out.
“We literally walked out of the prison gates.
“It was very surreal. It took days to sort of catch up mentally.”
The first moment Richard processed his ordeal was when he finally had access to a clean, hot shower.
He said: “Whilst we were in the prison, the water was not clean, so we had to disinfect ourselves after every shower.
“Just simply to have a hot shower and then put some clean clothes on was just amazing.”
Just when they thought their ordeal was over, the two were held for another 42 days on conditional release – which Richard described as being like “a prison in itself”.
While he was able to finally see and speak to his family over the phone – including his daughter – it “brought new challenges because we were still having to fight our case and to secure our release”.
Richard said: “It wasn’t guaranteed and even until the last the last day we didn’t know how long we would be there.
“We were still fighting to get our passports back and get our names cleared, get the charges of espionage and sedition dropped – so we we didn’t know whether we’d be there for another week or another three months.
“So that was that was really tricky to deal with that uncertainty.”
Richard ended up being released on his 30th birthday.
He said that while he is happy to be home with his family, “it’s going to take some time to adjust” and there are “some things I will need to unpack” due to the ordeal he had to endure.
Despite this, he is “excited about the future“.
