Warren Fellows
Encyclopedia
Warren Fellows is a former Australian drug courier who was sentenced to life imprisonment in Thailand
in 1978 for his role in a heroin trafficking
operation that took place from Perth to Bangkok.
, Australia
. His father, Bill Fellows, was a champion jockey
and horse trainer
who won the 1949 Melbourne Cup
on Foxzami
. He was the youngest of three children, but his two-year-old sister, Gail, died in 1950 from a "bowel complication". His older brother Gary died when he was only 36 years old. Gary was living with his wife Carole and two sons Brett and Rodney; he also had a daughter, Kimberly.
Fellows was educated at De La Salle College
, an independent Catholic
school for boys located in Ashfield, New South Wales
. Fellows claims he was nearly expelled from the school when he was caught running a horse betting operation from his school desk.
Warren "left" De La Salle Collage & went to Randwick North High School.
and an apprentice
hairdresser
in Double Bay
. It was through his bar work that he first became involved with drug trafficking, successfully importing hash
from India
. On his return to Australia he married, and fathered a child.
Word got out about the successful drug run and a customer in the bar where Fellows worked employed him to travel to Los Angeles
, Hawaii
and South America
to smuggle cocaine
into Australia. Fellows then came to know drug dealer William Sinclair, who took him to Bangkok
where he was introduced to Neddy Smith
and made his first successful attempt at smuggling heroin into Australia.
After returning to Australia, Neddy Smith contacted Fellows and offered him a job. Smith did not have the notoriety he had later, but was already a major and feared figure in the Sydney
criminal world. Fellows claims he became involved with Smith because he was "young and impressionable" and flattered that he "was liked by a man most people were terrified of".
Fellows worked for Smith as a drug courier, both domestically and internationally.
. Hayward played professional rugby league
with the Newtown Jets
and had been selected to represent Australia as a boxer
at the 1976 Summer Olympics
in Montreal
(he was disqualified from competing after turning professional). Hayward had done "favours" for Smith, but this was his first international job.
Prior to leaving Australia, Fellows was tipped off by a friend with a police contact at Manly
, that the Commonwealth Police
believed he was involved in a large drug importation operation and had him under surveillance
. Fellows reported this to Smith who dismissed it, claiming that he would have been informed if it were true. Smith insisted they continue with the job. Hayward and Fellows became increasingly apprehensive, but after Smith lost his patience with them and made implied threats, they reluctantly agreed to go through with the trip.
Fellows was particularly apprehensive about returning to Bangkok. During his last trip in February 1978, he had been forced to abandon a package of heroin he had been attempting to ship back to Australia and he feared that Thai police may have found it and been able to trace the drugs back to him. So he procured a false passport through a friend who obtained it for him in the name of a deceased child, Gregory Hastings Barker.
On arriving in Thailand, Fellows and Hayward met William Sinclair by chance. Sinclair now lived in Bangkok and owned the Texas Bar. Sinclair took them to his bar and, in a drunken state, attempted to obtain information from them about their trip. Unbeknown to them, the trio were under surveillance and the meeting appeared to police to incriminate Sinclair, even though, according to Fellows, he was not involved. Fellows claims that there were many warning signs and that the night before they were arrested he had a "moment of clarity" and resolved to wash the heroin down the bath drain. But he fell asleep and was woken in the morning by police.
and psychological abuse
at the hands of Thai Narcotics Suppression Unit officers who demanded they sign statements which they could not read because they were written in Thai
. The officers also demanded Fellows and Hayward make statements incriminating William Sinclair. Fellows claims they resisted because Sinclair was innocent, but he eventually relented when officers informed them they were to be executed without trial under Article 27 of the military law and dragged Hayward outside for execution. Fellows and Hayward agreed to sign the statement and Sinclair was arrested and charged.
The three men were sent to Bambat remand centre within the Klong Prem Central Prison, but after plotting an escape attempt were moved to "Maha Chai" the Special Bangkok Metropolitan Prison on Maha Chai Road (now the Bangkok Corrections Museum). They spent three years in Maha Chai before they were convicted of heroin trafficking. Sinclair and Fellows were sentenced to life imprisonment and Hayward was sentenced to 30 years jail. They were sent to the Lard Yao prison but after five days there when Sinclair attempted to bribe the wrong guard, they were transferred to Bangkwang
. Two years later, Sinclair's conviction was overturned on appeal in 1983. Hayward was later returned to Lard Yao, and later received a royal pardon
and was released from Lard Yao on 7 April 1989. Fellows received a royal pardon and was released from Bangkwang on 11 January 1990.
Whilst imprisoned in Thailand, Fellows attempted suicide several times, one he recalls was when he was locked into a darkroom he wrapped a sarong around his neck and tied it to a hook on the ceiling, however he claimed as he felt his bowels fall the sarong snapped causing him to fall, saving him. Fellows became addicted to heroin. He claimed that heroin was easily available in Thai jails and was the only form of escape from the appalling conditions. In his autobiography
, The Damage Done
, he expressed great sympathy for those afflicted by addiction to drugs. He writes that it was "an outstanding case of poetic justice" that he should become addicted himself.
and pneumonia
.
He expressed concern regarding his and his case partner Paul Hayward's ability to adapt back into society, an issue which he claims played a part in Hayward's death in 1992 from a heroin overdose. Fellows also explains how he still has hallucinations of strange abnormal creatures hovering over him and watching him. Furthermore Fellows claims that he has the same nightmare once a month, regarding him lying on a beach with two beautiful women feeling free and happy, however as he begins to walk off into the sunset he turns around and notices that the two girls have disappeared and that he is back in the Thailand Prison where a guard is calling his name telling him to go in his cell. Fellows says that although he is released from Bangkwang he will never be free from the tortures in his mind. In the late 2000s Fellows commented in the media on the cases of the Bali Nine
and Shapelle Corby .
four-piece band Harrisons
penned a song entitled Simmer Away after reading The Damage Done.
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
in 1978 for his role in a heroin trafficking
Illegal drug trade
The illegal drug trade is a global black market, dedicated to cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of those substances which are subject to drug prohibition laws. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs by drug prohibition laws.A UN report said the...
operation that took place from Perth to Bangkok.
Early life
Fellows was born in SydneySydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. His father, Bill Fellows, was a champion jockey
Jockey
A jockey is an athlete who rides horses in horse racing or steeplechase racing, primarily as a profession. The word also applies to camel riders in camel racing.-Etymology:...
and horse trainer
Horse trainer
In horse racing, a trainer prepares a horse for races, with responsibility for exercising it, getting it race-ready and determining which races it should enter...
who won the 1949 Melbourne Cup
Melbourne Cup
The Melbourne Cup is Australia's major Thoroughbred horse race. Marketed as "the race that stops a nation", it is a 3,200 metre race for three-year-olds and over. It is the richest "two-mile" handicap in the world, and one of the richest turf races...
on Foxzami
Foxzami
Foxzami, sired 1944 was a New Zealand thoroughbred racehorse.He was the winner of the 1949 Melbourne Cup ridden by W Fellows....
. He was the youngest of three children, but his two-year-old sister, Gail, died in 1950 from a "bowel complication". His older brother Gary died when he was only 36 years old. Gary was living with his wife Carole and two sons Brett and Rodney; he also had a daughter, Kimberly.
Fellows was educated at De La Salle College
De La Salle College Ashfield
This article is about De La Salle College Ashfield, Sydney. For Ashfield College in Dublin, Ireland, see Ashfield College.De La Salle College is a Catholic systemic, secondary, day school for boys', located in Ashfield, an inner-western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.Established in...
, an independent Catholic
Independent school
An independent school is a school that is independent in its finances and governance; it is not dependent upon national or local government for financing its operations, nor reliant on taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of tuition charges, gifts, and in some cases the...
school for boys located in Ashfield, New South Wales
Ashfield, New South Wales
Ashfield is a suburb in the inner-west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Ashfield is about 9 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of the Municipality of Ashfield.The official name for the...
. Fellows claims he was nearly expelled from the school when he was caught running a horse betting operation from his school desk.
Warren "left" De La Salle Collage & went to Randwick North High School.
Drug trafficking
Fellows worked in various jobs, including as a barmanBartender
A bartender is a person who serves beverages behind a counter in a bar, pub, tavern, or similar establishment. A bartender, in short, "tends the bar". The term barkeeper may carry a connotation of being the bar's owner...
and an apprentice
Apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...
hairdresser
Hairdresser
Hairdresser is a term referring to anyone whose occupation is to cut or style hair in order to change or maintain a person's image. This is achieved using a combination of hair coloring, haircutting, and hair texturing techniques...
in Double Bay
Double Bay, New South Wales
Double Bay is a harbourside eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Double Bay is located 4 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre of the local government area of the Municipality of Woollahra.Double Bay takes its name...
. It was through his bar work that he first became involved with drug trafficking, successfully importing hash
Hash
Hash may refer to:* Hash symbol, the glyph #* Hash mark , one of various symbols* Hash , a coarse mixture of ingredients* Hash chain, a method of producing many one-time keys from a single key or password...
from India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. On his return to Australia he married, and fathered a child.
Word got out about the successful drug run and a customer in the bar where Fellows worked employed him to travel to Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
and South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
to smuggle cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
into Australia. Fellows then came to know drug dealer William Sinclair, who took him to Bangkok
Bangkok
Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...
where he was introduced to Neddy Smith
Neddy Smith
Arthur Stanley "Neddy" Smith is an Australian criminal who has been convicted of rape, armed robbery and murder.Smith has been serving a life sentence since 1989 and is presently imprisoned in Long Bay Correctional Centre after being moved from Lithgow Correctional Centre in New South Wales,...
and made his first successful attempt at smuggling heroin into Australia.
After returning to Australia, Neddy Smith contacted Fellows and offered him a job. Smith did not have the notoriety he had later, but was already a major and feared figure in the Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
criminal world. Fellows claims he became involved with Smith because he was "young and impressionable" and flattered that he "was liked by a man most people were terrified of".
Fellows worked for Smith as a drug courier, both domestically and internationally.
Final drug run
In October 1978 Smith instructed Fellows to again travel to Bangkok, this time in the company of Smith's brother-in-law, Paul HaywardPaul Hayward
Paul Hayward was a former professional rugby league player and boxer who played for the Newtown Jets between 1973 and 1978. Hayward had been selected to represent Australia as a boxer at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal...
. Hayward played professional rugby league
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
with the Newtown Jets
Newtown Jets
The Newtown Jets are an Australian rugby league football club based in Newtown, a suburb of Sydney's inner west. They currently compete in the NSWRL Premier League competition, having left the top grade after the 1983 NSWRFL season...
and had been selected to represent Australia as a boxer
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
at the 1976 Summer Olympics
1976 Summer Olympics
The 1976 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1976. Montreal was awarded the rights to the 1976 Games on May 12, 1970, at the 69th IOC Session in Amsterdam, over the bids of Moscow and...
in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
(he was disqualified from competing after turning professional). Hayward had done "favours" for Smith, but this was his first international job.
Prior to leaving Australia, Fellows was tipped off by a friend with a police contact at Manly
Manly, New South Wales
Manly is a suburb of northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Manly is located 17 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre of the local government area of Manly Council, in the Northern Beaches region.-History:Manly was named...
, that the Commonwealth Police
Commonwealth Police
The name Commonwealth Police was used by three separate policing organisations in Australia at various times in the 20th century.-Commonwealth Police Force :...
believed he was involved in a large drug importation operation and had him under surveillance
Surveillance
Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...
. Fellows reported this to Smith who dismissed it, claiming that he would have been informed if it were true. Smith insisted they continue with the job. Hayward and Fellows became increasingly apprehensive, but after Smith lost his patience with them and made implied threats, they reluctantly agreed to go through with the trip.
Fellows was particularly apprehensive about returning to Bangkok. During his last trip in February 1978, he had been forced to abandon a package of heroin he had been attempting to ship back to Australia and he feared that Thai police may have found it and been able to trace the drugs back to him. So he procured a false passport through a friend who obtained it for him in the name of a deceased child, Gregory Hastings Barker.
On arriving in Thailand, Fellows and Hayward met William Sinclair by chance. Sinclair now lived in Bangkok and owned the Texas Bar. Sinclair took them to his bar and, in a drunken state, attempted to obtain information from them about their trip. Unbeknown to them, the trio were under surveillance and the meeting appeared to police to incriminate Sinclair, even though, according to Fellows, he was not involved. Fellows claims that there were many warning signs and that the night before they were arrested he had a "moment of clarity" and resolved to wash the heroin down the bath drain. But he fell asleep and was woken in the morning by police.
Arrest in Thailand
On 11 October 1978, the rooms occupied by Fellows and Hayward at the Montien Hotel in Bangkok were raided by Thai police. The pair were arrested when 8.5 kilograms of heroin was found in a suitcase in Hayward's room. Fellows alleges they were subjected to physicalPhysical abuse
Physical abuse is abuse involving contact intended to cause feelings of intimidation, injury, or other physical suffering or bodily harm.-Forms of physical abuse:*Striking*Punching*Belting*Pushing, pulling*Slapping*Whipping*Striking with an object...
and psychological abuse
Psychological abuse
Psychological abuse, also referred to as emotional abuse or mental abuse, is a form of abuse characterized by a person subjecting or exposing another to behavior that may result in psychological trauma, including anxiety, chronic depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder...
at the hands of Thai Narcotics Suppression Unit officers who demanded they sign statements which they could not read because they were written in Thai
Thai language
Thai , also known as Central Thai and Siamese, is the national and official language of Thailand and the native language of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai–Kadai language family. Historical linguists have been unable to definitively...
. The officers also demanded Fellows and Hayward make statements incriminating William Sinclair. Fellows claims they resisted because Sinclair was innocent, but he eventually relented when officers informed them they were to be executed without trial under Article 27 of the military law and dragged Hayward outside for execution. Fellows and Hayward agreed to sign the statement and Sinclair was arrested and charged.
The three men were sent to Bambat remand centre within the Klong Prem Central Prison, but after plotting an escape attempt were moved to "Maha Chai" the Special Bangkok Metropolitan Prison on Maha Chai Road (now the Bangkok Corrections Museum). They spent three years in Maha Chai before they were convicted of heroin trafficking. Sinclair and Fellows were sentenced to life imprisonment and Hayward was sentenced to 30 years jail. They were sent to the Lard Yao prison but after five days there when Sinclair attempted to bribe the wrong guard, they were transferred to Bangkwang
Bangkwang
Bang Kwang Central Prison is a men's prison in Nonthaburi Province, Thailand, located at the Chao Phraya River about 7 miles north of Bangkok.-History:...
. Two years later, Sinclair's conviction was overturned on appeal in 1983. Hayward was later returned to Lard Yao, and later received a royal pardon
Pardon
Clemency means the forgiveness of a crime or the cancellation of the penalty associated with it. It is a general concept that encompasses several related procedures: pardoning, commutation, remission and reprieves...
and was released from Lard Yao on 7 April 1989. Fellows received a royal pardon and was released from Bangkwang on 11 January 1990.
Whilst imprisoned in Thailand, Fellows attempted suicide several times, one he recalls was when he was locked into a darkroom he wrapped a sarong around his neck and tied it to a hook on the ceiling, however he claimed as he felt his bowels fall the sarong snapped causing him to fall, saving him. Fellows became addicted to heroin. He claimed that heroin was easily available in Thai jails and was the only form of escape from the appalling conditions. In his autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
, The Damage Done
The Damage Done
The Damage Done is a book by Australian Warren Fellows. It portrays his time in the notorious Bangkwang prison, nicknamed "Big Tiger". Fellows was sententenced to life imprisonment in 1978, convicted of heroin trafficking between Bangkok, Thailand and Australia....
, he expressed great sympathy for those afflicted by addiction to drugs. He writes that it was "an outstanding case of poetic justice" that he should become addicted himself.
Return to Australia
On his return to Australia, he spent two weeks in a hospital being treated for malnutritionMalnutrition
Malnutrition is the condition that results from taking an unbalanced diet in which certain nutrients are lacking, in excess , or in the wrong proportions....
and pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
.
He expressed concern regarding his and his case partner Paul Hayward's ability to adapt back into society, an issue which he claims played a part in Hayward's death in 1992 from a heroin overdose. Fellows also explains how he still has hallucinations of strange abnormal creatures hovering over him and watching him. Furthermore Fellows claims that he has the same nightmare once a month, regarding him lying on a beach with two beautiful women feeling free and happy, however as he begins to walk off into the sunset he turns around and notices that the two girls have disappeared and that he is back in the Thailand Prison where a guard is calling his name telling him to go in his cell. Fellows says that although he is released from Bangkwang he will never be free from the tortures in his mind. In the late 2000s Fellows commented in the media on the cases of the Bali Nine
Bali Nine
The Bali Nine is the name given to a group of nine Australians arrested on 17 April 2005, in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, in a plan to smuggle of heroin valued at approximately A$4 million from Indonesia to Australia...
and Shapelle Corby .
Popular culture
SheffieldSheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
four-piece band Harrisons
Harrisons
Harrisons were a four-piece guitar band from Hillsborough in Sheffield, England. They were one of the leading bands in the so-called New Yorkshire scene, along with fellow Sheffielders Arctic Monkeys, Milburn, The Long Blondes and Bromheads Jacket...
penned a song entitled Simmer Away after reading The Damage Done.