Woman escapes from jail, blogs about her jailbreak on Myspace
July 27, 2006 1:37 PM Subscribe
I just escaped from prison - and I'm blogging about it! Farah Damiji, 39, a former magazine editor from the UK, megawealthy scion of a real estate dynasty and "international conwoman", was given a 3.5 year sentence last year for credit card fraud and identity theft. She was given a day pass from Downview Prison in Surrey to attend an educational event and never returned. That's when an English magazine found out that Ms. Damiji was blogging about her jailbreak on her Myspace page. Her Majesty's Home Office is not amused.
From her blog, "Apparantly the Prison Service is trying to close down my blog. So much for the freedoms we take for granted."
posted by dead_ at 1:43 PM on July 27, 2006
posted by dead_ at 1:43 PM on July 27, 2006
KNOWN ASSOCIATES INCLUDE: TOM...
posted by riotgrrl69 at 1:53 PM on July 27, 2006 [10 favorites]
posted by riotgrrl69 at 1:53 PM on July 27, 2006 [10 favorites]
I had my freedom taken away so my son hardly knows me anymre and I don't want your pity but if I can stop this happening to just one other woman, no matter what she may or may not have done then I have achieved something in my life. Women should NOT go to prison.
Wow. This person was actually a legit journalist?
posted by brain_drain at 1:56 PM on July 27, 2006
Wow. This person was actually a legit journalist?
posted by brain_drain at 1:56 PM on July 27, 2006
Seems like people somehow don't get that the internet is a PUBLIC FORUM.
posted by ninjew at 1:59 PM on July 27, 2006
posted by ninjew at 1:59 PM on July 27, 2006
Um, does anyone else get impossible-to-close flash ads covering the text on the Times link?
The Times and MySpace are the same company. They don't feel the need to mention that in the article though.
posted by riotgrrl69 at 2:00 PM on July 27, 2006
The Times and MySpace are the same company. They don't feel the need to mention that in the article though.
posted by riotgrrl69 at 2:00 PM on July 27, 2006
Yes, there's lots to say about prison reform - whether in the UK or anywhere else - particularly in terms of the treatment of women offenders. But the martyred tone of her blog really sticks in my throat. She committed a major piece of fraud - just because it's white collar crime doesn't make it a joke. And then she tried to con the CPS while they were prosecuting the case. I hope she does not become a poster girl for prison conditions a la Jeffrey Archer. Bollocks to the "rot at the heart of the Met and the Prison Service" as she puts it, she's not exactly the purest of the pure. And she was given an opportunity by the governor of HMP Downview to attend an educational event - whatever the problems elsewhere in the prison, that shows a commitment to rehabilitation that she has taken advantage of. It's not like she's escaped from the maximum security wing of Strangeways or somewhere.
posted by greycap at 2:00 PM on July 27, 2006
posted by greycap at 2:00 PM on July 27, 2006
huskerdont, Fascinating story. I feel very sorry for her children.
"She had also self-harmed in prison", "Damji, who says she has an alcohol and drugs problem", "running up thousands of pounds on credit cards stolen from her nanny and a former employee". " Judge Samuels maintained: "[she is] a thoroughly dishonest and manipulative woman, and the aggravated features of [her] offending include the way in which [she] caused suspicion to fall on [her] employees and others to whom [she] were in flagrant breach of [her] position as an editor."
Sounds like classic symptoms of destructive Borderline Personality Disorder.
posted by nickyskye at 2:07 PM on July 27, 2006
"She had also self-harmed in prison", "Damji, who says she has an alcohol and drugs problem", "running up thousands of pounds on credit cards stolen from her nanny and a former employee". " Judge Samuels maintained: "[she is] a thoroughly dishonest and manipulative woman, and the aggravated features of [her] offending include the way in which [she] caused suspicion to fall on [her] employees and others to whom [she] were in flagrant breach of [her] position as an editor."
Sounds like classic symptoms of destructive Borderline Personality Disorder.
posted by nickyskye at 2:07 PM on July 27, 2006
I agree with greycap, there is a lot to be said about prison reform. Like allowing rich socialites who steal from people go to seminars unsupervised while they are in prison.
posted by rob paxon at 2:10 PM on July 27, 2006
posted by rob paxon at 2:10 PM on July 27, 2006
Women should NOT go to prison.
shoulda woulda coulda
posted by riotgrrl69 at 2:10 PM on July 27, 2006
shoulda woulda coulda
posted by riotgrrl69 at 2:10 PM on July 27, 2006
I'm still waiting for a trailblazing woman's rights hero to demand placement in a male prison facility.
posted by rob paxon at 2:13 PM on July 27, 2006 [1 favorite]
posted by rob paxon at 2:13 PM on July 27, 2006 [1 favorite]
nickyskye - from the Times article: "Damji, who has had treatment in jail for drug problems and has a borderline personality disorder..."
posted by flashboy at 2:14 PM on July 27, 2006
posted by flashboy at 2:14 PM on July 27, 2006
It's all about me, wonderful me, all about me...
Before falling foul of the law, she had set herself up as a successful editor in London and had managed to hide the fact that she had spent six months in jail in New York in 1995, for grand larcency and forgery.
Damji was jailed after she stole credit cards from acquaintances to fund shopping sprees.
THIS is MY blog. OK?
And I don't really care if you like it or approve or agree. This is my little world and if I don't like you I can kick you off it, ok Matt? Bit like prison, you only send visiting orders to people you wanna see...which is great, keeps the scum and teh great unwashed away
Oh yeah, one must maintain one's distance from the scum... what a minute.
posted by scheptech at 2:14 PM on July 27, 2006
Before falling foul of the law, she had set herself up as a successful editor in London and had managed to hide the fact that she had spent six months in jail in New York in 1995, for grand larcency and forgery.
Damji was jailed after she stole credit cards from acquaintances to fund shopping sprees.
THIS is MY blog. OK?
And I don't really care if you like it or approve or agree. This is my little world and if I don't like you I can kick you off it, ok Matt? Bit like prison, you only send visiting orders to people you wanna see...which is great, keeps the scum and teh great unwashed away
Oh yeah, one must maintain one's distance from the scum... what a minute.
posted by scheptech at 2:14 PM on July 27, 2006
Ha! we gotcha now:
Could your social networks brand you an enemy of the state?
By some counts, government snoops are sifting through data from a billion or more phone calls and online messages daily. What might they be looking for?
posted by Unregistered User at 2:19 PM on July 27, 2006
Could your social networks brand you an enemy of the state?
By some counts, government snoops are sifting through data from a billion or more phone calls and online messages daily. What might they be looking for?
posted by Unregistered User at 2:19 PM on July 27, 2006
MySpace seems to be a weirdness magnet... the Florida of the web, if you will.
posted by clevershark at 2:20 PM on July 27, 2006 [3 favorites]
posted by clevershark at 2:20 PM on July 27, 2006 [3 favorites]
You know I was just thinking how wrong it is to put a 99 year old woman in prison.
posted by rob paxon at 2:25 PM on July 27, 2006
posted by rob paxon at 2:25 PM on July 27, 2006
Sounds like classic symptoms of destructive Borderline Personality Disorder.
That's what I was thinking. How else to explain someone who argues that she is a victim because she is rightfully punished for victimizing others? The argument is so mystifyingly ineffective, that no rational person would ever try to convince another using it.
Her expectations of others -- that they will have sympathy for her, that they will accept her return to prison whenever she decides to return -- is so far removed from normality that there must be something going on.
posted by adzuki at 2:32 PM on July 27, 2006
That's what I was thinking. How else to explain someone who argues that she is a victim because she is rightfully punished for victimizing others? The argument is so mystifyingly ineffective, that no rational person would ever try to convince another using it.
Her expectations of others -- that they will have sympathy for her, that they will accept her return to prison whenever she decides to return -- is so far removed from normality that there must be something going on.
posted by adzuki at 2:32 PM on July 27, 2006
Well I guess this isn't normal behaviour, especially as she seems to justify what's she's done by saying Women should NOT go to prison.
posted by ob at 2:37 PM on July 27, 2006
posted by ob at 2:37 PM on July 27, 2006
apparently, (although it might be a wind-up) according to a comment on her latest blog entry, someone may have spotted her...
posted by ob at 2:40 PM on July 27, 2006
posted by ob at 2:40 PM on July 27, 2006
Before falling foul of the law, she had set herself up as a successful editor in London and had managed to hide the fact that she had spent six months in jail in New York in 1995, for grand larcency and forgery.
In Italy we have our share of con artist, like Silvio Berlusconi and some other infamous tv vendors claiming they have winning lotto numbers, or that if the salt doesn't dissolve you are under an evil spell and you are going to die UNLESS you pay the magician big money etc.
I find it curious that they can spread their bullshit all over the planet, YET if I call them bullshitter in a public arena I might get sued for defamation.
posted by elpapacito at 2:51 PM on July 27, 2006
In Italy we have our share of con artist, like Silvio Berlusconi and some other infamous tv vendors claiming they have winning lotto numbers, or that if the salt doesn't dissolve you are under an evil spell and you are going to die UNLESS you pay the magician big money etc.
I find it curious that they can spread their bullshit all over the planet, YET if I call them bullshitter in a public arena I might get sued for defamation.
posted by elpapacito at 2:51 PM on July 27, 2006
Hilarious. So, how long do you think it'll take for her to be picked up again?
And, what sort of slam will she end up in, after demonstrating that she's not to be trusted and isn't going to be rehabilitated?
posted by FormlessOne at 3:00 PM on July 27, 2006
And, what sort of slam will she end up in, after demonstrating that she's not to be trusted and isn't going to be rehabilitated?
posted by FormlessOne at 3:00 PM on July 27, 2006
I don't know why it should surprise anyone that our government or any other government or entity for that matter would use a PUBLIC FORUM SUCH AS THE INTERNET to FIND OUT WHAT PEOPLE ARE DOING. They'll go through all the trouble of tapping phones, yet ignore unrestricted (for the most part) readily available mountains of information. Yeah I don't think so.
posted by ninjew at 3:03 PM on July 27, 2006
posted by ninjew at 3:03 PM on July 27, 2006
This really sums it all up for me:
Fascist Stateposted by boo_radley at 3:18 PM on July 27, 2006 [1 favorite]
Current mood: cranky
How come some elderly (by MySpace standards) person on the lam has time to make the nicest MySpace page I've ever seen but the idiots who sit at home all day scratching their balls can't seem to put text on a background so it's legible?
posted by dobbs at 3:34 PM on July 27, 2006
posted by dobbs at 3:34 PM on July 27, 2006
Women should NOT go to prison.
Why should women alone not go to prison?
What a pompous self-entitled crackpot! Hell, she should be in prison just for her terrible writing!
posted by loquacious at 3:41 PM on July 27, 2006
Why should women alone not go to prison?
What a pompous self-entitled crackpot! Hell, she should be in prison just for her terrible writing!
posted by loquacious at 3:41 PM on July 27, 2006
How come some elderly (by MySpace standards) person on the lam has time to make the nicest MySpace page I've ever seen but the idiots who sit at home all day scratching their balls can't seem to put text on a background so it's legible?
she's rocking the default Myspace layout, my friend. to the gaud-awful stuff you see on the site, I think you can attribute the same motivations behind spinning rims, asscrack pants, and Elton John sunglasses.
posted by carsonb at 3:51 PM on July 27, 2006
she's rocking the default Myspace layout, my friend. to the gaud-awful stuff you see on the site, I think you can attribute the same motivations behind spinning rims, asscrack pants, and Elton John sunglasses.
posted by carsonb at 3:51 PM on July 27, 2006
"I had my freedom taken away so my son hardly knows me anymre"
For his own good, perhaps?
My exwife and I both had untreated depression while raising our son. Now he is 13, and I am trying to figure out if he also has depression, or if he just learned these behaviors.
Imagine being raised by someone with borderline personality disorder. EEK!
posted by mischief at 4:06 PM on July 27, 2006
For his own good, perhaps?
My exwife and I both had untreated depression while raising our son. Now he is 13, and I am trying to figure out if he also has depression, or if he just learned these behaviors.
Imagine being raised by someone with borderline personality disorder. EEK!
posted by mischief at 4:06 PM on July 27, 2006
Wrote and edited a lot yesterday; showed what's done of the book so far to smne at Knopf who liked it a lot, somewhere btwn Arundhati Roy and Sylvia Plath he said. Can there be higher praise?
Snark fails me, actually.
posted by jokeefe at 4:11 PM on July 27, 2006
Snark fails me, actually.
posted by jokeefe at 4:11 PM on July 27, 2006
A "professional" writer/editor who uses 'there' as the subject of a sentence? Umm, no.
posted by mischief at 4:41 PM on July 27, 2006
posted by mischief at 4:41 PM on July 27, 2006
flashboy, Thanks for the validation. I hadn't read the Times article when I wrote what I did.
Now the Times article confirmed the diagnosis of BPD, I can speculate about the trajectory of her situation. She will act out impulsively, probably putting herself or others in danger, and be taken again to prison for a long haul.
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is on a continuum, like all personality disorders. There are people on the low end of the continuum with BPD traits, which may be the residue from their having been traumatised. They usually self medicate for anxiety and depression with self harm, promiscuity, impulsive, very risky behaviors and addictions. They have volatile mood swings. And then there is the dark end of BPD, people who actively exploit others, are manipulative and whose mood swings are dangerous to others' physical and mental well being.
Since destructive BPD on the far end of the continuum is a permanent, all pervasive disorder, which can only be ameliorated with behavior modification, there really isn't much hope for this woman, except to be incarcerated or kept in a home with a monitoring bracelet. She already has a track record of repeated criminal offenses. Her children are in danger around her and, frankly, so are any others around her in the long run.
The thing is that BPDs can be exceptionally intelligent and she probably has some sort of creative gifts to offer the world. Writing maybe. It's kind of like harnessing the creative skills of a rabid dog.
posted by nickyskye at 5:24 PM on July 27, 2006
Now the Times article confirmed the diagnosis of BPD, I can speculate about the trajectory of her situation. She will act out impulsively, probably putting herself or others in danger, and be taken again to prison for a long haul.
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is on a continuum, like all personality disorders. There are people on the low end of the continuum with BPD traits, which may be the residue from their having been traumatised. They usually self medicate for anxiety and depression with self harm, promiscuity, impulsive, very risky behaviors and addictions. They have volatile mood swings. And then there is the dark end of BPD, people who actively exploit others, are manipulative and whose mood swings are dangerous to others' physical and mental well being.
Since destructive BPD on the far end of the continuum is a permanent, all pervasive disorder, which can only be ameliorated with behavior modification, there really isn't much hope for this woman, except to be incarcerated or kept in a home with a monitoring bracelet. She already has a track record of repeated criminal offenses. Her children are in danger around her and, frankly, so are any others around her in the long run.
The thing is that BPDs can be exceptionally intelligent and she probably has some sort of creative gifts to offer the world. Writing maybe. It's kind of like harnessing the creative skills of a rabid dog.
posted by nickyskye at 5:24 PM on July 27, 2006
I wonder if, back in the day, wayyyy back in the early 90s, back when Tim Berners-Lee was developing the World Wide Web, on the seventh day, he stood back and declared:
"A little more than a decade into the future, a disgustingly selfish, half-insane, privileged little shit will break out of jail and use my creation to whine and moan about having to face the consequences of her criminal behavior."
(And Berners-Lee saw that it was good.)
posted by jason's_planet at 7:35 PM on July 27, 2006
"A little more than a decade into the future, a disgustingly selfish, half-insane, privileged little shit will break out of jail and use my creation to whine and moan about having to face the consequences of her criminal behavior."
(And Berners-Lee saw that it was good.)
posted by jason's_planet at 7:35 PM on July 27, 2006
Seems like people somehow don't get that the internet is a PUBLIC FORUM.
i've very certain she gets it ... this has, "look at me, warden, nyah, nyah, nyah" all over it
And then there is the dark end of BPD, people who actively exploit others, are manipulative and whose mood swings are dangerous to others' physical and mental well being.
you'd better believe it ... someone like that can put you through all sorts of hell
posted by pyramid termite at 9:01 PM on July 27, 2006
i've very certain she gets it ... this has, "look at me, warden, nyah, nyah, nyah" all over it
And then there is the dark end of BPD, people who actively exploit others, are manipulative and whose mood swings are dangerous to others' physical and mental well being.
you'd better believe it ... someone like that can put you through all sorts of hell
posted by pyramid termite at 9:01 PM on July 27, 2006
adzuki, Just discovered I hadn't read your post.
How else to explain someone who argues that she is a victim because she is rightfully punished for victimizing others?
Exactly. Alloplastic defenses, typical of the Axis II Cluster B personality disorders.
posted by nickyskye at 9:33 PM on July 27, 2006
How else to explain someone who argues that she is a victim because she is rightfully punished for victimizing others?
Exactly. Alloplastic defenses, typical of the Axis II Cluster B personality disorders.
posted by nickyskye at 9:33 PM on July 27, 2006
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posted by dead_ at 1:40 PM on July 27, 2006