By Tyler Mears From Wales Online

ITV documentary Brits Behind Bars shows Nicole Reyes in jail in the Dominican Republic as her family at home in Cardiff fought for her release

Unique footage from inside the Caribbean prison where a Welsh mother spent almost two years after being accused of killing her husband will be shown in a new television documentary.

Viewers will see Nicole Reyes behind bars after she was convicted of the voluntary manslaughter of her husband Jorge in 2012 and later handed a 12 year sentence.

Brits Behind Bars shows Nicole locked inside a “cockroach infested” cell which she shared with two other women for two years.

‘I just knew something was wrong’
The Cardiff mum, who moved to the Dominican Republic to work as a travel rep, met her husband Jorge and the couple married in 2007.

But Jorge died five years later and Nicole was in jail blamed for his death.

She tells the cameras how she had been driving her Jeep with Jorge on his moped beside her when she looked behind to check the road and turned back to see Jorge on the floor.

Speaking from jail, Nicole said: “All I remember is seeing Jorge just in front of me. And I just remember me screaming, hearing a crunch, and I just remember slamming my foot on the brake and braking. I just knew something was wrong.”

The programme shows the mum-of-two phoning home every night to speak to her family in Cardiff and being too afraid to fall asleep in her cell in case she was beaten with sticks.

Fears of attack during trial
Viewers see Nicole spending most of her time in the prison library reading books brought to her by the British Foreign Office while other inmates dance and put on shows for local dignitaries.

She tells the programme: “I don’t get involved in anything because that’s not me, that’s the way I am. I’m used to interacting and here I feel I can’t interact very well because of the language.”

It also shows footage from her hour long trial where she had to be protected by armed guards because of fears she might be attacked.

More than 4,000 miles away in Rumney, Cardiff, the documentary also followed Nicole’s family as they tried to raise the £55,000 needed to pay Nicole’s bail.

Her parents Mike and Jeannette spent their life savings to make the journey to the Dominican Republic and pay their daughter’s bail money.

With the bail paid Nicole was released and the programme shows her having to go into hiding for her own safety in a slum controlled by drug dealers before she can fly home to Wales.

‘I never want to go on holiday abroad again’
After an emotional reunion with her parents and her family back home in Cardiff, Nicole tells the programme: “I never want to go on holiday abroad again. I’m happy to go to Butlins. It’s scary, to think that you get stuck in a system.

“For me I’d tell everybody never go abroad again, but that’s not going to stop people, but I would just say if people go abroad they have to seriously think, and to really be careful. It could happen to anybody.”

She said she would not return to the Dominican Replublic to appear in court and as there is no extradition agreement in place with the UK it is unlikely she will be forced to do so.

Around 5,500 Brits are arrested abroad every year and more than 50 Brits are behind bars in the Caribbean.

IMAGES:
Nicole Reyes in prison in the Dominican Republic and her mother Jeannette Clements at home in Cardiff
© Wild Pictures Nicole Reyes in prison in the Dominican Republic
Jorge and Nicole’s wedding day in the Dominican Republic in 2007
Nicole and her husband Jorge
Jeannette and Nicole after Nicole arrived home in Cardiff after being locked up in the Dominican Republic

For more on this story go to: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/inside-footage-shows-cardiff-mums-9744792

See iNews Cayman related story and links published May 5 2014 “Nicole Reyes’ conviction for Caribbean killing upheld” at: http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/nicole-reyes-conviction-for-caribbean-killing-upheld/

See also “Nicole Reyes: Home and safe at last, the Welsh mum relives her Caribbean nightmare” at: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/nicole-reyes-relives-nightmare-dominican-7241934