I survived 18 years in Thailand's most brutal jail - here's how
UPDATED: 01:21 GMT, 26 December 2024
It was one wrong move that landed him in Thailand's most brutal prison for nearly two decades.
Jonathan Wheeler was 32 when he sold his motorbike to fund his airplane ticket and jetted half way across the world in search of a new life.
But he had little idea at the time that it wouldn't be until 20 years later that he would return to British soil, having spent the majority of it in a cell in Thailand's most notorious prison.
The asbestos removal worker, from Holbury, Hampshire, had initially decided to visit the popular tourist destination for a month but quickly grew in love with Thai boxing and developed a dream of running a restaurant and boxing camp in the mountains in the south of the country.
In a desperate attempt to make his dream a reality, he recklessly agreed to smuggle 4lb of heroin from Bangkok to Taiwan - at the time valued at more than £1m. The £10,000 offered to him for the job would have set him up to buy his restaurant.
But he hadn't even passed security at the airport when officers descended upon him and he was locked away.
What followed was almost two decades in some of Thailand's most hellish prisons including the 'Bangkok Hilton' Khlong Prem Prison and the brutal Bang Kwang Central Prison, dubbed the 'Big Tiger'.
Now, as he recounts his horrifying experiences behind the prison walls in his new book 'The Tiger Cage: 18 Years in a Thai Prison', the 64-year-old has spoken to MailOnline about his ordeal. From watching inmates attack each other with cleavers, to the 'corridor casinos' run by the prison guards, and a four-year relationship with a teacher while inside, there is little Mr Wheeler hasn't seen.