DUBAI: A British aristocrat with a criminal record dating back 30 years has revealed how he claimed to have converted to Islam while in jail so he could get more food.
Jamie Spencer-Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough said he made the claim shortly after Ramadan, telling them he had changed faith, The Independent revealed.
With a history of drug addiction and more than 20 convictions dating back three decades – including one for punching a police officer – the Duke had also had a very public battle with his father, John Spencer-Churchill, who failed to prevent his troubled son from inheriting his $9.8 million estate.
Spencer-Churchill made the revelation about his Muslim claims at a recent event in London billed as a series of “talks by exceptional people with extraordinary lives.”
He told the event’s host interviewer, Sir David Tang: “I changed religion when I went to jail. I became a Muslim because you got more food. It wasn’t the time of Ramadan. I luckily hit it just right – just afterwards.”
A UK government report revealed that many inmates believe that converting to Islam in jail will lead to them eating better, it is a claim denied by the Ministry of Justice.
The ministry also played down claims that inmates known as “convenience Muslims” were granted more time out of their cells – a suggestion that was revealed in the 2010 publication “Muslim Prisoner’ Experiences.”
According to The Independent, all prisoners can opt for a halal meal option, whatever religion they follow.
He served a string of sentences more than three decades ago and finally kicked his drug addiction 10 years ago.
“I don’t know whether it was age or something in my brain, or my wife… But it was around that time when I just felt ‘enough is enough,’” he was quoted in the Mail on Sunday as saying.
British aristocrat ‘converted to Islam’ while in jail for better food
British aristocrat ‘converted to Islam’ while in jail for better food
Second doctor in Matthew Perry overdose case sentenced to home confinement
- Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October
- Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service
LOS ANGELES: A second California doctor was sentenced on Tuesday to eight months of home confinement for illegally supplying “Friends” star Matthew Perry with ketamine, the powerful sedative that caused the actor’s fatal drug overdose in a hot tub in 2023.
Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October to a single felony count of conspiracy to distribute the prescription anesthetic and surrendered his medical license in November.
Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service. As part of his plea agreement, Chavez admitted to selling ketamine to another physician Dr. Salvador Plasencia, 44, who in turn supplied the drug to Perry, though not the dose that ultimately killed the performer. Plasencia, who pleaded guilty to four counts of unlawful drug distribution, was sentenced earlier this month to 2 1/2 years behind bars.
He and Chavez were the first two of five people convicted in connection with Perry’s ketamine-induced death to be sent off to prison.
The three others scheduled to be sentenced in the coming weeks — Jasveen Sangha, 42, a drug dealer known as the “Ketamine Queen;” a go-between dealer Erik Fleming, 56; and Perry’s former personal assistant, Iwamasa, 60.
Sangha admitted to supplying the ketamine dose that killed Perry, and Iwamasa acknowledged injecting Perry with it. It was Iwamasa who later found Perry, aged 54, face down and lifeless, in the jacuzzi of his Los Angeles home on October 28, 2023.
An autopsy report concluded the actor died from the acute effects of ketamine,” which combined with other factors in causing him to lose consciousness and drown.
Perry had publicly acknowledged decades of substance abuse, including the years he starred as Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s NBC television series “Friends.”
According to federal law enforcement officials, Perry had been receiving ketamine infusions for treatment of depression and anxiety at a clinic where he became addicted to the drug.
When doctors there refused to increase his dosage, he turned to unscrupulous providers elsewhere willing to exploit Perry’s drug dependency as a way to make quick money, authorities said. Ketamine is a short-acting anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties that is sometimes prescribed to treat depression and other psychiatric disorders. It also has seen widespread abuse as an illicit party drug.
