A former brothel madam has claimed Cassie Sainsbury was forced into sex work due to financial problems.
Pamela Feranchi, who allegedly employed the accused drug smuggler in the months leading to her arrest, said the Adelaide-woman was “deeply depressed” and “didn’t want to work as a sex worker” but needed to support her fiancé.
“Cassie was a very sweet girl who was deeply depressed and didn’t want to work as a sex worker,” Ms Feranchi told The Daily Telegraph.
“She rang me crying from Adelaide asking for work saying her fiance wasn’t working, he was living off her, and she needed the money to support him — no girl chooses to be a sex worker unless they absolutely have to.”
“She never took drugs or drank, the most I ever saw her drink was a beer here and there.”
“I felt for her, sometimes she would cry in the corner eating pizza, chips and gravy. She wasn’t the most popular girl, God love her, she was a bit tubby, even though she was a personal trainer.”
“She was a complete mess, you could tell she did not want to be there but she had big money problems.”
She added: “She told some of the other girls her mother was no longer alive and me that she had been diagnosed with cancer, she broke my heart.”
Cassie was planning a wedding next February to her fiancé Scott Broadbridge, 23.
Feranchi’s claims come a day after a former colleague at the brothel alleged Cassie was a prostitute who worked alongside her at 220 Gentleman’s Club in western Sydney in 2016.
Operating under the name Claudia, the accused drug mule had allegedly been working as a FIFO (fly in, fly out) worker commuting from Adelaide to work at the Sydney brothel.
“She would fly in and stay for a week or sometimes just for two, or three or four days,” the source told 60 Minutes.
She said Sainsbury’s profile described her as “19 years old, classy, fun and ready to please”.
The woman also said the picture below is Cassie:
“That one there is Cassandra, 100 per cent. I know that outfit. I remember when she showed us, when she bought it. I have seen that photo.”
The unidentified source claims this is Cassie.
She also described her as a liar:
“I think she is manipulative. I think she is a compulsive liar,” she told Nine’s Tom Steinfort.
“Don’t be fooled by the tears and the blonde hair and the big boobs. She’s not this small town girl from Adelaide, Cassandra is not the naive, sweet little blonde girl that everybody thinks she is.”
WATCH: The unidentified source says Cassie worked as a prostitute. Post continues…
Cassie has now changed her initial story as to why she was discovered with nearly six kilograms of cocaine in her luggage. Her lawyer Orlando Herran has now said she responded to a Craigslist ad after finding herself in financial strife.
Herran claimed she tried to back out of the deal at the last minute before threats were made against her life and her family.
“Cassandra isn’t a bad person, Herran told 60 Minutes. “She is a young girl with a… mistake.”
More as we get it.
