Freeman in `good spirits` after crash

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THE cannabis in Schapelle Corby`s boogie-board bag belonged to her late father Mick, according to an Adelaide drug trafficker who claims he and Mick Corby were drug associates.

Malcolm McCauley, who has convictions for possessing and trafficking drugs, claims the drugs found in Schapelle Corby`s bag at Denpasar Airport in 2004 belonged to her father.

The revelations come after McCauley - who was released in May - tried to sell his story to the media. Mick Corby died on cancer at the start of the year.

Mercedes Corby - Schapelle`s sister and Mick`s daughter - has called on the Australian Federal Police to launch a full investigation to clear her father`s name.

She has called McCauley`s claims a baseless attack on a defenceless man. "This man is a self-confessed and convicted drug trafficker," she said.

"Schapelle was (her father`s) baby girl. There`s no way on earth he would let her go to jail for something he did.

"My dad was a good man. These claims are making an easy target of a dead, defenceless man."

Speaking to Sydney`s Sun-Herald newspaper, McCauley has said: "I don`t want to lie any more. It`s time to wipe the slate clean. Tonight I want to sleep with a clear conscience.

"Once the drugs were delivered to Mick, I had nothing else to do with them whatsoever. But certainly I knew where they were heading," he was quoted as saying.

The cannabis was packaged with a series of $1000 bribes to help it move through customs, he said.

"And the simple reason why it broke down on the day was because the money was no longer in the bag when it arrived with security," McCauley said.

Mick Corby repeatedly denied knowledge of the Bali drugs, but admitted a 1970s conviction for marijuana possession.

Last week, his cousin Allan Trembath claimed Mick Corby had once asked him to help move a drug shipment through Queensland, but local police said they had "no evidence to link Michael Corby with involvement in the drug trade".

In a documentary screened on Channel 9 last month, Mick Corby`s former best friend and Queensland neighbour, Tony Lewis, admitted to growing marijuana metres from the Corby home, but claimed the Corbys had no drug links.

In the documentary, Mick Corby told film-maker Janine Hosking he had contemplated taking the rap for his daughter. "(I`ve been) tempted to say I did it, I put it in, I`ve thought about it," he said, but "All that would do is have us both locked up."

The McCauley-Corby link came to light in May, 2005 when police raided McCauley`s home and found 15kg of cannabis, $60,000 cash and photographs of McCauley visiting Schapelle Corby in Bali`s Kerobokan prison.

He claimed to have met Schapelle`s mother, Rosleigh Rose, while visiting the Bali court to observe Schapelle`s trial. They later met Rose in a bar, where she offered to take them to visit Corby in jail. Rose, McCauley and Schapelle Corby all said they had no prior link.

But in a documentary scene filmed outside the prison, McCauley said to Schapelle`s sister Mercedes: "I`ll try and organise some smoke for next week." Mercedes replied: "Um ...".

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