Family will mount legal bid to move McCollum to jail in North

The family of one of two women sentenced to almost seven years in jail for trying to smuggle €1.75m of cocaine out of Peru has insisted she is innocent.

The mother and sister of 20-year-old Michaella McCollum, from Dungannon, Co Tyrone, also vowed to mount a legal bid to allow her to serve her sentence of six years and eight months in a Northern Irish jail.

McCollum along with co-accused Melissa Reid, from Lenzie near Glasgow, pleaded guilty to drug smuggling in September.

The pair had faced the prospect of a maximum 15-year prison term but struck a plea bargain to secure a shorter sentence.