Friday Nov 15, 2024
Friday Nov 15, 2024
Monday, 26 January 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Alan Patey took control of the aircraft after his deportation, en route to Heathrow Airport.
He is currently on licence with an electronic tag in Margate until the end of March.
The former HSBC insurance manager and Foreign Office worker said he had “no complaints” with his sentence for the hijacking in September 2013.
The 50-year-old said: “I had a property in Sri Lanka and used to visit regularly on holiday but I got defrauded and the house was taken away.
“I tried to recover my belongings but my money was pocketed and I lost my passport.
“I should have gone to the Qatar Consulate in Sri Lanka for help but instead I went to the police station.
“I handed myself in stating that I was an illegal overstayer and needed to be deported.
“Usually if you overstay you just pay a fine in an airport and go on your way.”
However, Patey was put on remand and sent to New Magazine Prison.
He said: “There are some poor people in there; people dying of internal bleeding, being raped and electrocuted.
“People disappeared in that prison and, although they say no one has been executed for more than 50 years, they were shooting people and slinging their bodies over the fence.
“There were two guys with life sentences, they were being tortured and had fingernails missing.
“It was the stuff of nightmares being stuck in a third world prison for a crime that was not worth the sentence.
“I was attacked by prison guards who left cigarette burns on my arms and legs.
“They delighted in torturing me because I was like a British trophy inside that prison.”
Patey spent four days in prison, a further five days in Welikada prison in Colombo and two months in Mirihana deportation camp before being flown back to Heathrow on a Sri Lankan Airlines flight.
He said: “The Sri Lankan Government owned the airline and the prisons and I can’t believe they were stupid enough to deport me on their own airline.
“This was my one chance to fight back for those I left behind in those prisons.
“The Independent reported that I had hijacked the plane with a bomb hoax but that wasn’t true at all.
“I never said anything about a bomb and only the cabin crew were aware that I got the plane to land in Stansted. It was announced that the flight would land there due to technical reasons.
“I would be quite happy to write to all of the passengers on board that flight individually and perhaps they would understand.”
Patey will finish his sentence in late March. (Source: http://www.kentonline.co.uk/thanet/news/hijacker-reveals-why-he-seized-30458/)
