Last night a DJ wrecked my life

Lisa Burnett spent her 21st birthday in a tough Jamaican prison after accepting a free holiday from a 'friend'. She is one of an increasing number of women who are being duped into acting as drug couriers.

Lisa Burnett reacted just like any other young girl offered a free holiday to Jamaica - she packed her bags and didn't ask too many questions. Three months later Lisa, who is epileptic, spent her 21st birthday in a Jamaican prison where she is serving a 15-month sentence for cocaine smuggling.

Her case is typical of a growing number of young British girls whose lives have been ruined because they were naïve enough to accept a free holiday in suspicious circumstances. Conditions in the notorious Fort Augustus prison in Kingston where Lisa is being held have caused her family to have real fears for her life.

One of the last people to see Lisa was Sarah, 21, who served a seven-week sentence in Fort Augustus after being convicted of attempted cannabis smuggling. Sarah had become so distressed by Lisa's treatment and deteriorating health that when she was released last week she went straight to Lisa's family.

Sarah, who comes from London but does not want to give her full name, told Lisa's mother her daughter had already suffered two epileptic attacks and that the prison authorities were withholding her medication. She said Lisa had also experienced a number of seizures which caused her to black out. "She falls on the prison floor and no one does a thing to help her. I'm not sure she will mentally or physically make it," says Sarah.

Conditions in Fort Augustus drove Sarah, a healthy girl serving a relatively short sentence, to the limits of her physical and mental endurance. For an epileptic like Lisa, whose friends had warned her that she wasn't even sufficiently street-wise to live in London, her continued imprisonment poses a serious threat to her life.

Sarah describes Fort Augustus women's prison as a place where foreigners are treated little better than animals. Recalling her own detention, she says: "There were 25 of us in a large dormitory cell with just one shower and two holes in the ground for toilets. The food, which is always rice and beans, is given to you in buckets which the guards kick when it arrives. The place is crawling with rats and the only doctor is an animal vet."

Lisa is one of 30 young British women held in Fort Augustus, mostly on drug smuggling offences. Many have similar stories about how they came to be locked up so far away from home.

Lisa accepted a holiday from a man she had only recently met in London. He turned out to be connected to a Jamaican drugs gang. Her case can be compared to that of Karen Smith and Patricia Cahill who took free holidays to Thailand in 1990 which were paid for by a British man they hardly knew. Both girls served three years in prison after being caught with heroin hidden in their luggage.

Karen Smith's lawyer, Stephen Jakobi, director of the charity Fair Trials Abroad, said the two cases had "alarming" similarities. "There are many naïve young girls out there who are being taken advantage of by professional drugs gangs," he warned. "And on the face of it this [Lisa's case] may well be another such instance. I'm afraid that despite the warnings more and more girls are being trapped like this."

Lisa had dreamed of becoming a model or an MC disc jockey. Last year, just after her 20th birthday, she moved from St Leonard's-on-Sea, East Sussex, to London where she found a job as a secretary in a London business centre. She moved into a bedsit in Vauxhall, south London, and it wasn't long before she made some new friends. Her 19-year-old landlord introduced her to a group of young black MCs who became her entrée to the London night-club scene.

Through these friends she met an older member of the group called Paul. He offered to pay for a holiday to Jamaica where, he said, he had family and friends. Lisa was impressed. The year before she had been abroad for the first time on holiday to Spain with a girlfriend. That trip was paid for by her friend's family. Paul told her that his family in Jamaica would show them a good time and if she couldn't afford the flight he didn't mind paying for it.

But there were two suspicious features with this second holiday which might have rung alarm bells with a more experienced traveller. Lisa was given a new suitcase to carry her belongings, and Paul flew out separately on another airline. They would meet up at Kingston airport later.

Lisa was a little apprehensive, but Paul kept his word. He met her at the airport, found her a hotel and introduced her to his friends. Any misgivings she might have had evaporated. During her stay she even found a new boyfriend. When it was time to return to England Lisa was upset that her holiday romance would also have to come to an end. By the time she reached the airport she was still crying.

She told the Kingston criminal court that the first time she knew about any drugs was when the customs officers broke open the suitcase to reveal a false compartment. Inside were two kilograms of liquid cocaine. Her first reaction was to tell the customs officers that she knew they were lying because "cocaine was a powder". The officers laughed at her naïveté.

After Lisa's arrest on 4 February and immediate detention in conditions worse than those in Fort Augustus, her mother, Carol Burnett flew out to see her daughter. Lisa was determined to plead not guilty, and Mrs Burnett paid £1,000 to a local lawyer to prepare her defence. After Mrs Burnett returned to Sussex, but before the case even got to court, she received a number of worrying phone calls. Twice a man claiming to be the Jamaican policeman who arrested Lisa phoned to demand payments of £3,000 in exchange for her daughter's release.

Investigators from Interpol are understood to be checking Mrs Burnett's allegations. She also had grave concerns about the way her daughter's case was being conducted. "The local lawyer, who was on a British Consular approved list, failed to bring Lisa's epilepsy to the attention of the court, although I had given him a letter from her consultant. He also refused to call me as a witness."

On 23 March, after a series of false starts, Lisa was sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment for drug trafficking and possessing cocaine. But the court, as is common in Jamaica, has also offered Mrs Burnett the chance to pay for her daughter's early release. A fine of 450,000 Jamaican dollars (£7,000), if paid soon, will cut Lisa's sentence by six months. Carol Burnett, a matron with 34 years nursing experience, has already spent £12,000 on legal fees and travel expenses, and has exhausted all her savings. Her only hope of raising the release money is through private donations.

Mrs Burnett last saw her daughter on the day the court delivered its sentence. The prison guards allowed them 20 minutes together. "She was very scared and she kept asking me to take her home. When I said I couldn't she told me not to leave her alone again. I said I had to go home to try to get the money to pay the fine. If I can get her out early it might just save her life."