Bizarre guidelines confronted by Aussie mum Debbie Voulgaris in Taiwan jail as she lives in worry of constructing the tiniest mistake: Punishment means she’ll NEVER neglect to put on her slippers once more

The family of an Australian woman jailed in Taiwan has revealed grim new details about the strict regime of her prison life, where she sleeps on the floor of a tiny cell shared with 16 others.

Debbie Voulgaris, 58, is serving 15 years for drug smuggling after being caught with $1.9million-worth of Class A drugs at Taoyuan International Airport in 2023.

The mother of five, who had never previously been in trouble with the law, denied any knowledge of the drugs, but later pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty.

But Ms Voulgaris still insists she is innocent and believes she was set up by African scammers who claimed to be doing a deal with her ex-husband John Kyriacou.

Her heartbroken children told the Daily Mail they had now cancelled all their festive celebrations in sympathy for their mother who sobs inconsolably.

Her daughter Maria, 26, said she cannot enjoy the holidays while her mother remains locked away in a foreign prison where she is brutally punished for every rule breach.

‘It doesn’t feel right us having Christmas or celebrating anything while she is suffering like this,’ she told the Daily Mail.

‘My poor mother woke up one day and walked across her cell without putting her slippers on and was made to write out her name 2,000 times in Taiwanese.

‘Another time she was rushing to get dressed after her shower, because you are only allowed a few minutes, and she accidentally put her shirt on inside out. 

‘That was another punishment.’

Maria says her mother now lives in constant fear of breaking the bizarre rules. 

‘She tells me it is scary. She says she does not know why she is still there. She just cries and cries and begs us for help,’ she said.

Since her mother’s arrest, Maria has fought tirelessly to clear her name, but navigating a foreign legal system has proven difficult, with hope repeatedly slipping away.

‘I am just a grieving daughter and sometimes I get really overwhelmed,’ she said.

‘After my mum’s second failed appeal I just thought, what is the point? They are never going to listen to me or take anything I say into consideration.’

Her mother’s lawyer urged her not to give up. 

‘He told me I had to keep going because innocent people don’t stay silent,’ she said.

‘But it is so confusing. The courts recently accepted a third appeal and then it was rejected before it was even heard. It is very hard for all of us.’

Maria said delivering bad news to her mother is one of the most painful parts of the ordeal.

‘We only get 15-minute video calls every few weeks and there is so much tension because we are the ones who have to tell her,’ she said.

‘Now when we speak to her it is just sadness. She has no emotion left. She is traumatised by what she has seen in there and then we are telling her the appeal was rejected.’

Maria, who travelled overseas for the first time to visit her mother in jail, said the rules are never-ending.

‘She is not allowed direct contact. Even if we travel to Taiwan, we can only see her through a window,’ she said.

‘She is still sleeping on the floor. The cell is so overcrowded, I think there are 17 women in there.

‘She is on so much medication because she has so many health conditions. It is so hard to see because my mum was once such a healthy woman. 

‘She was always active and bubbly.

‘She is 58 years old and for a long time she was not allowed to leave her cell, which caused blood clots in her legs that spread to her hip. She also has heart problems now.

‘There was a time we went eight months without speaking to her. I kept looking at old photos of her and when the camera finally turned on, I barely recognised her.

‘Her hair had turned grey. She had lost so much hair. She looked so tired and so broken.’

According to facts tendered to the Taoyuan District Court, Ms Voulgaris landed in Malaysia on December 8, 2023, on a flight from Australia.

There, she met a group linked to an African drug syndicate who gave her the suitcase.

She then travelled on to Taiwan, unaware it was loaded with heroin and cocaine worth around $1.88million, she insists.

The drugs were detected by the airport’s X-ray screening system.

Ms Voulgaris has consistently maintained she took the trip as a favour to her ex-husband, who was unwittingly caught up in the scam.

He believed she was collecting chemicals to clean ‘marked money’, and she doesn’t believe he would have deliberately involved her in any criminal scheme. 

Despite her guilty plea, Ms Voulgaris received a 16-year sentence, among the harshest penalties handed to an Australian abroad for drug offences in recent years. 

Her sentence was later reduced to 15 years by Taiwan’s High Court.

In May 2024, Mr Kyriacou told Daily Mail Australia he and his ex-wife had been set up by long-term business associates while the couple were innocently trying to make an overseas investment. It is not suggested Mr Kyriacou has in any way acted illegally.

However, he did not respond to a subpoena ordering him to give evidence at Taoyuan District Court in August and was a no-show at her hearing.

During the hearing, Judge Chen Yen-Nien revealed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other authorities had confirmed Mr Kyriacou, who lives in Melbourne, had received the documents but failed to attend.

Ms Voulgaris’ lawyer at the time, Leon Huang, told the court it would be difficult to extradite him because he is an Australian citizen.

Judge Yen-Nien said without Mr Kyriacou’s testimony, which could help clear his ex-wife, the court would have to rely on the evidence available.

Maria says she is unable to discuss her father’s involvement due to the ongoing case, but admits the situation has torn the family apart.

‘I’m not here to abuse my dad,’ she said. ‘I’m not here to talk badly about my dad. 

‘I have anger and that’s understandable. It’s distressing because it’s two parents that I have lost now. My mum is wrongfully imprisoned.’

Since her mother’s arrest, Maria has been forced to take on responsibilities she was never prepared for.

‘I’m 26 years old,’ she said. ‘I was 23 when mum was arrested and had no clue what I was doing. I ended up doing markets on weekends to sell my things to pay for lawyers.

‘It feels like I am losing my mind. I stay up at night trying to research ways to help. I have to organise warm clothes for her because it’s freezing there and I have to put money into my mum’s prison account.

‘Some days it’s too much and I just refuse to leave the house.’

The family knows any appeal carries the risk of their frail mother being placed on death row, but they refuse to give up.

‘Our next option is an extraordinary appeal which is very rare and I’m hoping that Australia can understand that this woman is innocent,’ Maria said.

‘There is a lot of evidence that the court has seen and knows she is not capable of these things.

‘But the reality is they need to hold someone accountable and no one is taking accountability, and my mother is facing the consequences of someone else’s sentence.’