AN OAP drug mule jailed alongside his late wife for a £1 million Cocaine haul insists: “My stupidity caused this”.
Roger and Sue Clarke were caged for eight years after Portuguese cops found 20lbs of the Class A in their suitcase.
Sue died in jail in 2021 and Roger was deported to the UK to serve the rest of his sentence.
But despite years of drug running across Europe, Roger, 77, maintains his innocence and now wants £60,000 compensation.
Speaking on day release at a Morrisons cafe in Sittingbourne, Kent, he told The Mirror: “I’m doing time I shouldn’t be doing.
“I think it’s a breach of my human rights. Sue knew nothing. I blame myself, I should have checked.”
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The couple were on a cruise from St Lucia to Portugal in December 2018 when pals allegedly asked Roger to take a suitcase.
He claims he had done it for the couple before and despite being searched “four times” there was never anything found.
But the grandparents, from Chatham, Kent, were arrested following a tip-off as the Marco Polo liner docked in Lisbon.
The arrest left Roger “shocked” and he had “no idea” the four cases were stuffed with coke.
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Their 2018 arrest came just eight years after the pair were caught smuggling 240kg of cannabis into Norway, before going on the run to the Costa Blanca, Spain.
Police said they used four cruises in two years as a front, making as much as £26,500 per trip.
Both were handed an eight year prison term for the cocaine haul but when Sue died aged 72 of breast cancer in 2021 Roger came back to the UK.
He now claims he is a victim of “false imprisonment” and alleges his case hasn’t been heard in front of a Uk judge.
In an astonishing claim of innocence, he added: “I should have served four years but now I’m being told to do five and a half.
“I feel like I’m a free man still in prison.”
Roger, who said he has serious health issues and needs a pacemaker, claimed he is owed £107 a day for being in prison “unfairly”.
He claims the authorities demanded £35,000 to repatriate Sue’s body but he could only afford £1,500 for her cremation.
Speaking in 2021, Sue’s ex-husband John Smeathers of 20-years accused Roger of “leading her astray”.
He added: “She didn’t deserve to meet the guy she met. She claimed they were innocent which is pretty difficult to believe.
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“Without a shadow of a doubt, he led her astray. Before she met him, she was just a normal Cheadle Hulme housewife.”
Roger – who says his family has disowned him – is set to be freed in May.
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Tom Hussey
