Andrew Clements walked free from Phuket Jail on bail on Tuesday evening. It took two days for the money transfer to go through. He strongly maintained his innocence but preferred not to make any other comment.


THE LIFE of an Australian has been threatened in Phuket Jail as part of an extortion scam by a British prisoner, friends of the Australian said today.

The British prisoner, who is serving a long sentence, demanded that 50,000 baht be paid into a bank account ''or my friends will kill you,'' Phuketwan was told today.

The Australian, in fear of his life, had the money paid into a bank account last week as requested and is now seeking to get it back, his friends said.

Andrew Clements, 51, who is facing a charge of abuse of a four-year-old boy, was transferred to a more secure part of the overcrowded jail for his own protection.

Mr Clements was today granted bail of 800,000 bail on the charge, which has shocked his friends on Phuket and at home in Devonport, Tasmania, where he was a well-known basketballer and a one-time member of the Australian squad.

His girlfriend of 20 months, Sujidta Foisomrong, 33, shed tears in the courtroom today and hugged an aunt on hearing that bail had been granted.

Mr Clements appeared in court barefoot and shackled, dressed in prison denim shorts, and carrying a novel. The justice in the case said the bail had been set high because of the seriousness of the allegation.

The incident involving the four-year-old is said to have taken place on August 7 last year at Phuket International Academy. However, the child's mother did not report the alleged incident to police until March 19.

Mr Clements had been dismissed from the school in December. In a statement last week, the head of the day school, Len Peters, said: ''There is absolutely no connection between his dismissal from the school and the criminal charge which he now faces.''

Khun Sujidta said that when she visited Mr Clements in jail, he told her about the demand for the 50,000 baht and asked her to pay the money.

On Friday she went to Phuket City police station to ask police to help her get it back.

''Andrew was shaking with fear when I saw him in jail and he told me about the money,'' she said. ''Andrew is definitely not the kind of person who would abuse a child.''

Mr Clements taught on Samui for six months, then on Phuket at Darasamut School for two years before joining the staff of the PIA for eight months, she said. He had been on Phuket for a total of three years and eight months.

Mr Clements' father was transferring the 800,000 baht bail to Phuket today.

In Tasmania, a local newspaper, The Advocate, reported a friend of Mr Clements as saying: ''I'm just shocked, just shocked to hear the allegations. There will be a lot of people in basketball that know Clemo that would be thinking that would not be true.''