The married British diplomat accused of conducting a sordid prison affair with a convicted drug dealer has broken her silence about the scandal, telling friends it was ‘a huge error of judgment’ on her part. But despite confessing her naivety in forming a friendship with the man known as Bali’s ‘Mr Big’, Alys Harahap also feels the Foreign Office has ‘thrown her to the wolves’. Harahap, a mother of two, was suspended by officials last month after she befriended Julian Ponder, the British-born ringleader of a drug-smuggling syndicate, who claimed that he and the Cambridge graduate were in love. She denies their relationship was intimate, branding Ponder’s claims of secret prison trysts as ‘malicious, nasty and ridiculous’.
@highlight
Alys Harahap has told friends she never had an affair with Julian Ponder
@highlight
Ponder is part of a group of Brits convicted of drug offences in Bali
@highlight
Harahap visited him in prison on behalf of the British Consul several times
@highlight
She admits being naive in forming a friendship with man known as 'Mr Big'
@highlight
But insisted the pair did not have sordid trysts as he previously claimed
She was beside herself with worry for the welfare of her children and husband if she did not agree to his demands.’ Fearful, @placeholder asked for extra security at her home but was told she’d have to fund it herself.