Kiwi grandfather Antony de Malmanche’s thoughts often drift thousands of kilometres from his sweaty, cramped cell at Bali’s infamous Kerobokan jail to his homeland of Aotearoa. But while there are happy memories – of friends, family, being on the water and catching fresh kaimoana – there are also flashes of pure darkness.
Now in his ninth year of a 15-year sentence, the 61-year-old Whanganui man will often have flashbacks to his traumatic past at Lake Alice Hospital in the Manawatū, where, from the ages of eight to 11, he was one of dozens of children and young adults institutionalised after being deemed a “problem” by social services – and systematically abused.
“I can still smell the paraldehyde,” Tony tells Woman’s Day via the prison phone, recalling how he tried to escape the hospital several times, which resulted in him being administered with the toxic sedative. “There was a charge nurse who used to give me injections – a nasty little man whose eyes seemed to glow red with pure evil.”
Tony awaits updates from the Royal Commission Inquiry into Lake Alice with great interest – desperate, like so many others, for justice to be served. Of particular interest is a court date in August, when staff member John Richard Corkran, aka “Dempsey”, is due to stand trial after police charged him in 2021 with seven counts of wilful ill treatment of a child.
Arrested in 2014, Tony claimed he was the victim of a Nigerian drug cartel.
The Marton man, who will be 91 years old when the case is heard, is accused of injecting young patients at the hospital’s child and adolescent unit with paralysing drugs as punishment when he worked there between 1974 and 1977. “I feel frustrated being such a long way from the enquiry and able to do so little,” says Tony, who has eight grandchildren.
It was on 1 December2014 that the beneficiary was caught at Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport with 1.7kg of methamphetamine in a backpack that had been gifted to him. He was heading to Indonesia to meet “Jessy Smith”, a US businesswoman he’d met on a dating site.
As Tony was to find out, Jessy didn’t exist. Instead, his lawyers alleged, a sophisticated drug cartel, believed to be from Nigeria, was using him as an unwitting drug mule. But the Balinese judges didn’t believe the claims and sentenced him to 15 years in jail.
The last time Woman’s Day spoke with Tony back in 2017, he was spending his days spearheading a mental health clinic that provided support for foreigners. When the pandemic took hold, however, he was forced to stop because of COVID restrictions and his failing health.
Already fragile with the lung condition chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, as well as angina, Tony’s health has declined even further in the past few years, with a heart attack last June and, more recently, two broken ribs sustained following a fall.
The fragile grandfather can only eat mush.
“Nothing was done for months, so it’s now very painful,” he tells. “And my teeth are so rotten, they all need to come out. I need two sets of dentures. I can’t eat any hard food – just mush.”
With little to focus on, life in the jail has become even more “meaningless” and lonely. Most of the foreigners with whom Tony could communicate in English have gone home or died.
“I feel a lot more isolated now,” he says, adding that only Australian prisoner Matthew Norman, from the infamous Bali Nine heroin-smuggling ring, remains. “He’s been here 17 years – half his life.”
The overcrowded jail, which used to house 1000 prisoners, now holds nearly double the amount of inmates. Conditions are even tougher since Tony was recently moved to a new cell where there is even less space and no privacy.
“We’re packed in like sheep in a stock truck,” Tony tells. “There’s no power source, so we can’t even have a fan in there.”
Forget privacy. “We’re packed in like sheep,” says Tony.
With little to occupy him, supporters are even more of a lifeline than ever. As well as family and friends, long-time Kiwi human rights lawyer Craig Tuck has been an unwavering support to Tony over the years.
“Tony is one of many people incarcerated unfairly around the world,” explains Craig.
“As someone who had never travelled outside of New Zealand, and a Lake Alice survivor with severe depression and PTSD, he
is the epitome of vulnerability – exactly the kind of person these cartels target.”
Tony estimates that, with good behaviour, he will be released sometime in mid-2026. He says, “Sometimes I don’t dare believe it could be that soon and mostly it still feels like freedom is a long way away. But I do think about what I’m going to do when
I get out.
“I have a gypsy spirit, so I would consider living on a boat and catching fish for breakfast – just living a simple life, able to see my friends and family. I miss them every day and I long for the day we can be reunited.”
To help, visit “Justice for Tony de Malmanche” on Facebook or search for “Dental/medical expense for Tony de Malmanche” on givealittle.co.nz.
Need to talk? Free call or text 1737 any time for support from a trained counsellor.
