JAILED South Lakeland businessman Paul Cleasby ,who is facing trial next month for smuggling antiquities, has been able to send a fax from his Turkish jail cell to let his family know how he is coping. Mr Cleasby's family allowed Michaela Robinson-Tate access to part of the fax, which has been sent from cell D17 in Antalya jail...

BOREDOM, cold water and unpalatable food are just some of the hardships facing Paul Cleasby, who has now been in Antalya jail for approaching three weeks.

In the fax, sent to his sister, Vanda Whitton, Mr Cleasby attempts to squeeze all his news on to one page, which is important as he has to pay for the paper which he uses.

He described cell D17, which is shared with 12 others, as having two rooms, one up and one down, and a small yard, which has no view.

"We just get to look up at the sky, walls are six-and-a-half metres high," he writes.

The water in the jail is cold, and the weather has turned rainy so there is very little sun. When it does shine, Mr Cleasby can only appreciate it for one hour in a small corner of the yard.

He asks for a book to be sent to him to alleviate the boredom, as there is little to do.

Mr Cleasby, who is aware that his plight has been reported in The Westmorland Gazette, describes food in the jail, which he has to pay for from an account into which his family has deposited funds, as "not too good", and said he has only been allowed a few items of clothes and is wearing his Birkenstock sandals.

He would have been allowed his "good shoes" but this would have involved the prison authorities removing any metal parts presumably for security reasons so he opted to do without. He said he would have to borrow a fellow inmate's training shoes for a court appearance.

Throughout his fax, Mr Cleasby, who is the owner of horn product manufacturer Abbey Horn, based near Milnthorpe, is anxious for news of his legal case.

The Turkish Embassy in London this week commented on Mr Cleasby's case for the first time.

In a statement, Embassy staff said they had information from the Turkish Ministry of Justice that Mr Cleasby was arrested after a piece of marble was detected in his suitcase by an X-ray machine.

The Antalya Museum Directorate reported that exporting the marble would be in contravention of the Protection of Cultural Property Act.

Mr Cleasby had appeared in jail, the statement said, and told the court that he had paid 20 Euros for the marble, believing it to be imitation.

Mr Cleasby's sister, Vanda Whitton, said this information differed from what his family had been told, which was that the rock had been put on a conveyor belt at the airport in open view.

Mrs Whitton, who said the family was now deciding whether someone would go out to Turkey to visit her brother, said she was pleased the trial date had been fixed but was still unhappy with the length of time the legal process had taken.

"We think he should be out on bail they obviously don't think that," she said.