It was my stupidity

>> Cocaine smuggler: I am innocent >>He wants payout over 'unfair' jail

- DAN WARBURTON

DRUGS mule Roger Clarke insists he was fitted up over a cocaine smuggling plot that landed him and his wife Susan in jail, but said he blames only himself for the mess.

The 77-year-old spoke as he was pictured on British soil for the first time yesterday since his transfer from a Portuguese prison to a UK one in 2021, just days after Susan died behind bars.

His claims of innocence will astonish many given that the couple were once jailed in Norway for drug smuggling.

Clarke said he should have been freed in December 2022 after serving half his eight-year term for bringing £1million of cocaine on a cruise ship from St Lucia to Europe with his wife.

He will not be released until May and is even planning a human rights compensation for nearly £60,000 for "false imprisonment".

Clarke said: "People say, 'Do you want revenge?' What's the point? It won't bring my Susan back. My stupidity, that's what caused this." He told how he wants to be freed so he can have a proper memorial for Susan and to heal a rift with his family.

The couple were arrested on the Marco Polo cruise liner as it sailed into Lisbon in December 2018.

We tracked Clarke down to Sittingbourne, Kent, where he spends time on day release from nearby HMP Standford Hill on the Isle of Sheppey.