A TERMINALLY ill photographer who smuggled $400,000 worth of cocaine into Hong Kong had his sentence cut yesterday, but still faces dying in Stanley Prison.
Brian Rappaport, 52, was stopped at Kai Tak on December 21 last year with the drugs hidden in the soles of his shoes. He was sentenced to 71/2 years.
Rappaport confessed to police who set up a 'sting' operation to catch the Hong Kong dealer, but the plan failed.
'I will feel remorse for what I have done for the rest of my life, however short or long that may be,' Rappaport said in the Court of Appeal.
'They say there is no fool like an old fool and I am he.' The self-confessed 'ageing hippy' said he naively believed the drugs were for the personal use of a friend of someone he had met in Thailand.
He was promised US$1,000 (HK$7,729) but considered it reimbursement for his hotel expenses while he explored the local photography market, not a drug pay-off.
The English photographer once worked for Britain's The Sun, taking pictures of topless girls. He became a Hollywood paparazzi before settling down in Thailand in 1988.
