Many people who have read Michaella McCollum's version of the events which led up to her imprisonment in Peru for drug smuggling will have little sympathy for a young woman who appeared to play a major part in her own downfall. However, it would take someone with a heart of stone not to have some recognition of the pain being experienced by Michaella and her family.
She is open concerning her use of drugs in Ibiza, but she consistently protests her innocence about smuggling, and there is a ring of truth about her claim that she pleaded guilty to lessen her sentence and that she had no choice in this. There will also be a recognition that the jail conditions in Peru are squalid compared to those back home, but this is well-known from the stories of other people who have been incarcerated in equally difficult circumstances in Peru, and other countries where drug smuggling presents a major challenge to the authorities.
