Michelle Leslie (aka Michelle Lee), is an Australian model, who started working after her father gave her a course at a modeling school as a 15th birthday present. She took another course and then left school in order to pursue a full time modeling career. She became one of the "most prominent catwalk and catalogue models" in the state ... naturally TV beckoned, and she was in one of those interminable "
Reality" shows that plague modern TV schedules .... this one was called ' Search for a Supermodel' in 2000. She couldn't bypass the beauty contest either, and in the same year she was first runner-up in the 2000 Miss World Australia pageant held in Darwin. Her exotic looks (she was half Filipino) meant she was in big demand within Asia, appearing under the name "Michelle Lee".
But then came the '
Oops' moment .... In August 2005, two pills were discovered by police in her handbag at open-air dance party at GWK park on the Indonesian (and Hindu) island of Bali, but which as we all know is run by the largely Muslim country of Indonesia. They were suspected as being drugs, and a blood test found traces of amphetamines in her system (the pills turned out to be the drug ecstasy). In a classic, '
Why me ...its someone else's fault' moment, Indonesian police said that after her initial denials, she apparently claimed that the pills were given to her by a friend, "Mia" (another model named Nameera Azmaan), who not surprisingly strenuously denied having given them to Ms Leslie
The then Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, commented after her arrest that Australians caught with drugs "
can't expect the Government to bail them out"
.... So threatened with a possible 15 yrs in an Indonesian prison, her crack defence team of legal weasels pulled out all the stops ....
- Firstly, a report from a Sydney doctor was provided to prosecutors stating that she was 'addicted to prescription medication', which was really lucky because as it so happens, this reduced the maximum possible sentence from 15 years, to 3 months!
- Then Ms Leslie began wearing Islamic dress in prison and announced through a spokesman that she had converted to the islam some eighteen months prior to her arrest (without anyone knowing, what with her wearing next to no clothes on model shoots)... which was a lucky turn of events as well (she was on a role!).
- She then donned a burqa on one occasion when she appeared in court, and opted to wear Islamic dress, such as traditional Muslim hijab, until she was released from Prison.
The trial concluded with her being
found guilty of using a prohibited substance. She was
sentenced to three months in jail but, in another stroke of good fortune, due to her having served the three months already in custody, she was
freed the next day. She was deported to Singapore where she spent time with friends and family before returning to Australia ....
and so with one bound she was free!!
Oddly, her fervour for being a muslim apparently diminished with every air mile travelled away from Indonesia ..... and by the time she arrived in the land of OZ, she was back to 'normal', backtracking on her conversion. She gave an interview stating that she did not "
really know what makes you or not makes you a muslim", and that she was "
not a practising muslim".... gosh I am surprised. Cynics might suspect that she may have been fibbing about being a muslim ...
but not me, oh no 
... the religious clothing was now described as just a defence against prison rape by the guards, and to stop the press viewing her. And this from a Lingerie model! ... she wore tight-fitting clothes when she left Indonesia .... see below
Some muslims now suggested that she stop modelling (especially in little or no clothes), as it wasn't allowed to muslim's, but by April 2006, she was back modelling swimwear again ... her career then took a different turn in 2007, she launched a range of clothing for dogs, and got engaged to a Non muslim. Some critics later accused her of having "
introduced the world to disposable Islam" ... and incidentally thus risking death for being an 'apostate' .... she was lucky once again, because no death threats.
Trivia:
- Albert Leslie her father, was later known both as a former Olympian (Basketball 1968), and as assistant coach to the Adelaide 36ers basketball team.
- At the time of arrest, Leslie was in the company of Ms Azman and, allegedly, one of the sons of the then Coordinating Minister for the Economy and a Billionaire muslim, and two other unidentified men .... not hard to guess that they were another couple of religious hypocrites, who according to their religion should not have been drinking alcohol, or popping pills with western models at a 'rave' either. But possibly lucky for her, as the fear of the scandal if she had named names may have 'helped' the court give her a light sentence.
Pictures:
