Marianne Telfer has been held in custody in the Dominican Republic since February 17th 2004.  She is charged with International Drug Trafficking – an offence which carries a possible prison sentence of between 5 and 20 years.

Marianne is 28 years old and has lived in Colchester all her life. She is one of three children – Catherine is 30 and Richard is 34 years old.  She is particularly close to Catherine as they have lived together for most of their adult life and, in the last two years worked together at the same organisation.

Marianne holds a senior position at Acorn Village, a home for adults with Learning Disabilities.  She is one of the two registered Care Managers for Acorn Village – a senior managerial position she has held for 4 years.  She joined the Village community immediately after her full-time education ceased at the age of 18.  She is highly loved and respected at Acorn.

She has many friends in the Colchester area and her detention has led to a huge number of letters, emails, faxes and fund-raising events from and run by these friends – none of whom can believe that Marianne was involved in any criminal activity.

Her interests are very wide – above all she loves music and has a very wide range of tastes; she reads books by the score and occasionally has fitness drives!