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EXCLUSIVE: THE TRUTH ABOUT SCHAPELLE'S PRISON BREAKDOWN

Scared and hiding like a hunted animal, Schapelle Corby felt as if her worst fears had come to life. 'I've had enough,' the devastated prisoner told her family. 'I don't know how much more of this I can take.'

When cameras invaded her cell at Bali's infamous Kerobokan jail last week, Schapelle took refuge in the bathroom, sobbing and throwing water at her unwanted visitors. It was an image that shocked Australia, appalled her psychiatrist and horrified her sister Mercedes when it screened on television.

'I'm so angry,' Mercedes, 35, says in an exclusive interview with New Idea. 'People don't know what Schapelle is going through. She was totally intimidated and just needed some space.'

Now for the first time, New Idea can reveal exactly why 32-year-old Schapelle was so distressed by the unexpected prison open day, and why her feelings boiled over.

In the depths of her mental illness she already believes that she is being spied on all the time, with cameras hidden in the walls of her cell, and that mysterious enemies hide in the ceiling.

'That's one of her most common hallucinations – that she's under constant surveillance,' Mercedes explains. 'For Schapelle suddenly to be surrounded by dozens of lenses, with no warning whatsoever, was absolutely terrifying. It was like her worst nightmare came to life.

'To tell you the truth, I'm relieved that she didn't react even more badly and freak out completely. The following day we talked about it and she was still upset – but her cellmates said she was totally distraught immediately after it happened,' she adds.

ON THE BRINK

'The other girls told me that none of them slept that night because Schapelle was searching for hidden cameras and microphones.

Apparently she kept going to the window to see if anyone was still watching her.'

Last August, leading Australian psychiatrist Associate Professor Jonathan Phillips diagnosed Schapelle as being insane, and warned she wouldn't survive her 20-year sentence unless she was removed from Kerobokan urgently.

At the time he revealed: 'Schapelle's mind is playing dreadful tricks on her. She can get no peace because she is sure she is being filmed at all times for bizarre purposes.

'She sees highly personalised and critical messages in books, on television and in videos, and she is sure that others are conspiring to end her life. Schapelle is lost in her own bewildering world where fantasy, hallucinations and bizarre ideas dominate her mind. She is in the deepest of pain.'

TAKEN BY SURPRISE

Last week's media visit to the women's section of Kerobokan was unannounced and totally unexpected as far as inmates and their families were concerned. But even prison guards were surprised by the scrum that rapidly developed around Schapelle and fellow Australian Renae Lawrence, who's one of the Bali Nine drug mules.

LIVING IN A ZOO

'There were people inside the cell going through her personal possessions and taking photos; it was a total invasion,' Mercedes says.

'It's hard enough for Schapelle to have any privacy, sharing a room with between six and 13 girls – but it must have been unbearable, especially for someone who's already suffering from a mental illness.

'When things like this happen Schapelle tells me she feels like a show pony, or an animal on display in the zoo. She gets embarrassed. She just wants to run away and hide.'

When Schapelle and her cellmates fled to the bathroom but were still followed, that was the last straw. The former Gold Coast beauty student, who was arrested at Denpasar airport five years ago with 4.2kg of marijuana in her boogie board bag, just flipped out.

And Dr Phillips, for one, is hardly surprised. 'The only word that comes to mind is outrage! Let's all remember that Schapelle has a serious mental illness. This was an invasion of uninvited people, merely trying to sensationalise the situation.
Let Schapelle have her peace, as much as that is possible. This is yet another unwanted stress in her life. It can only make her health situation worse.'

ONE RULE FOR SOME

The jail visit was organised by Indonesian authorities in a bid to prove that there is no special treatment being offered behind the razor wire of Kerobokan – and in that respect the inspection tour certainly succeeded.

It was a response to revelations that prominent businesswoman and socialite Artalyta Suryani had allegedly bribed guards to live in luxury at Jakarta's Pondok Bambu Prison – where she was said to enjoy a plasma TV, spa, air-conditioning, lounge, double bed and fridge.

'Some people say Schapelle has a great life at Kerobokan, but they could not be more wrong,' Mercedes says. 'Even the Indonesian president and finance minister have admitted conditions are really bad in most of the jails.

'Schapelle doesn't go on outings – that's a total lie – or eat out at restaurants, or go to the beach. All those stories are just so untrue.'

In fact, the hellish reality couldn't be more different.

'She lives in her own little world,' Mercedes says sadly.

'Half the time she doesn't even understand or remember why she's in prison. The only reality she knows is what's in her own head. Being in Kerobokan is destroying her.'