Andrew Drummond

Link to Mail on Sunday article

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok 
16th August 2008

Pictures by Andrew Chant

A British man who faced a seven-year prison sentence in the Philippines for adultery is being allowed to return to the UK with his girlfriend and baby this week.

David Scott, 37, has had his application for partner Cynthia Delfino to accompany him granted by the Home Office on humanitarian grounds.

The couple’s daughter Janina has been given British citizenship following her parents’ ordeal, which began when they were arrested and flung into a squalid cell in Manila when Cynthia was eight months pregnant.

They were charged with adultery, which is illegal in the strictly Catholic Philippines, despite Cynthia having separated from her husband.

After four days the couple were bailed and they fled to live in a jungle and derelict houses before Janina, now seven months old, was born in a tiny clinic.

David, from Swindon, Wiltshire - who met Cynthia on the internet in 2006 - paid £12,000 in legal fees and bribes to get them to Thailand.

After the long and emotional journey, they picked up Cynthia’s visa from the British embassy in Bangkok last week.

David said: ‘It’s been a long fight having to pay bribes everywhere I go. But every time I look at my daughter I just know it was worth everything.’

Cynthia said: ‘I am so relieved. I am a little scared about going to Britain, but everybody is so kind.’

Coming home at lastFrom Andrew Drummond,
Koh Samet, Thailand
Saturday August 16 08
In the sea  off the Thai island of Koh Samet David Scott takes his first ever dip with is new born baby and Filipina wife.
He has been in the tropics for nine months but has not even seen so much as a swimming pool in an ordeal which began with his arrest and jailing in the Philippines for adultery and a threatened  sentence of seven years.
But yesterday David Scott, 37, his girlfriend Cynthia, 28, and baby Janina, seven months finally found time to celebrate after learning that the Home Office had granted them permission on humanitarian grounds for the whole family to return to Britain.
David and Cynthia are on the run after escaping from Philippines Police. A court official in Coolocan, Manila, confirmed last week that a warrant had been issued for their arrest or adultery.
 This week they will be flying back to Swindon, Wilts, where Scott will introduce his new born baby to his grandmother.
Said David: “If it had not been for you guys (the Mail on Sunday) and my local M.P. Anne Snelgrove, I have no idea where I would be now, but probably in jail or worse. I cannot thank you enough.”
David Scott, 37, from Swindon, Wilts., spent last New Year in jail in Manila, after he was arrested with 8 month pregnant Cynthia Delfino,  during a night-time swoop by Philippines police and officers of the National Bureau of Investigation.
Accompanying the police was Cynthia’s Filipino husband Noriel Delfino, who was demanding the couple be jailed for the maximum seven years in the Philippines for adultery unless they paid him the equivalent of £7,000.
There is no divorce in the Philippines, a strictly Catholic country, but rich families can seek costly annulments on the grounds of the mental incapacity of one of the partners.
The couple  were thrown into a  police cell and that’s when how they spent last New Year. They even had to bribe police to be allowed to share a cell.
The couple fled while on bail and were forced to live in the jungle, derelict houses, and finally a room provided by friends, before their baby girl Janina was born in secret in a tiny clinic south of Manila.
All in all David Scott had to legal fees and bribes over £12,000 using his savings and finally cash sent by his mum and friends in Britain, to pay for documentation for Janina and his wife and get smuggle them out of the country.
Although the warrant was out for their arrest, they were able to board a flight to Bangkok, Thailand.
“The Immigration policeman took  my last £25,” said David.
Back in Thailand journalists chipped in and provide food and accommodation for the family for four months while David attempted the hardest - part to get them all home to Britain.
With the help of local M.P. Anne Snelgrove, Mr. Scott was able to get British citizenship for baby Janina in Bangkok a month ago, and this week an official from the British Embassy in Bangkok  informed David the Cynthia’s application to travel with her baby to England was granted on humanitarian grounds.
On the holiday island of Koh Samet,  150 miles south east of Bangkok David Scott said:  “When I flew to the Philippines to visit Cynthia for the birth of our baby her husband had already agreed to go through an annulment.  But I walked into a trap.  It’s been a long fight having to pay bribes every where I go.  But every time I look at my daughter I just know it was worth everything.
“I have learned a lot from this trip. The biggest lesson of all is that one is not automatically going to get help or even just advice from a British Embassy if one gets into trouble. You are very much on your own.
“The first advice I got from an Embassy official in Manila was that legally Janina was not my baby and I should leave the country without her. 
(Technically as there is no divorce in the Philippines the government would recognise Janina as being the daughter of Noriel Delfino).
“That’s not the sort of advice one forgets.  Then when I got to Bangkok they would not even let me and Janina into the Embassy – until my M.P. called them – all because we had ticked the wrong box on a visa form.
(Cynthia has been given a visa even though technically she is still married to Noriel Delfino and has known David under the statutory two years. Thus they were not even allowed to join the visa queue).
Said Cynthia:  “I am so relieved. I am a little scared about going to Britain but  everybody has been so kind so far.”