WAITING FOR MUMMY’S RETURN: Beatrice’s sons with their grandmother Pauline, looking at her photo album.
KUCHING: The world of the Johie family comes crashing down when told daughter caught with heroin.
A phone call from the Malaysian Embassy in Australia came like a bolt of lightning for the Johie family of Kampung Seratau at Mile 15 Kuching Serian Road last Sunday afternoon turning their world topsy-turvy.
The call informed them their 27-year-old daughter Beatrice had been caught with 1.5kg of heroin in her luggage at Melbourne Airport.
Beatrice’s mother, Pauline Durit, 49, said she panicked when she received the call on her handphone at about 3.45pm while they were visiting her sister’s house in Kampung Mundai.
She said she could not believe the news and wished it was not true until the ambassador’s wife spoke to her of her daughter’s predicament.
When interviewed at their home yesterday Beatrice father Laus Johie ,49, blamed her Nigerian boyfriend for deceiving her into carrying his luggage where the drug was hidden in its lining.
Seething with anger he believed his 27-year-old daughter Beatrice was an unwitting drug mule.
Beatrice, a ward assistant of a private hospital and a single mother of three sons was charged at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday and is now placed on remand to reappear before the Court on Jan 9 next year.
Laus said his daughter could have met the Nigerian man named Anthony through Facebook .
“My relatives had told my wife she had befriended a foreign guy. Some of our concerned relatives advised and warned her not to continue with the relationship but she just ignored them. We only knew about their relationship recently,” said Laus.
He added that he and his family did not know Beatrice planned to go to Australia because she did not say anything before she left the house on Nov 3 at about 2pm apparently for her evening shift.
Pauline added Beatrice’s young children needed her and appealed to the government to help her daughter as she believed she was framed by her boyfriend.
“Although the sons are not so close to her due to her tight schedule, they still need their mother.”
Her sons are aged two, six and eight, the younger two stay with her parents while the eldest stays with her former parent-in-law.
Beatrice arrived at Melbourne International Airport from Kuala Lumpur on Sunday morning and her luggage was examined by the Customs and Border protection.
She was supposed to have travelled with the Nigerian man but he claimed he had visa problems and could not make the trip at the last moment.
Beatrice is facing 25 years’ imprisonment and/or a A$550,000 fine if found guilty of committing the offence.