Convicted drug trafficker Matthew Norman will soon trade a squalid cell for a sprawling beachfront mansion after spending two decades behind bars in Bali.
The 38-year-old is one of the remaining ‘Bali Five’ who landed on Australian soil on Sunday from Indonesia, where the group spent 19 years behind bars for attempting to smuggle heroin from Denpasar airport in April 2005.
Norman, along with Bali Nine members Scott Rush, Michael Czugaj, Martin Stephens and Si Yi Chen, are currently detained at Howard Springs Accommodation Village near Darwin after a secret prisoner swap was agreed.
He is expected to arrive in Melbourne in the coming days, where he will move into a waterfront mansion in Torquay, a seaside town known for its pristine beaches.
The $4 million home has two floors and four bedrooms and is a stone’s throw from Cozy Corner, a beach popular with families due to its calm surf.
The waterfront property is owned by Christian couple Ann and Alan Wilkins, who offered the property to Norman after forming a close relationship in prison.
“It’s been an interesting journey,” Mr Wilkins told the Geelong Advertiser.
“I really can’t comment much further at this time.”
Convicted drug trafficker Matthew Norman (pictured with his Indonesian wife Anita and stepdaughter Stella) will soon trade a squalid cell for a sprawling beachfront mansion.
The $4 million home (pictured) has two floors and four bedrooms and is a stone’s throw from Cozy Corner, a beach popular with families due to its calm surf.
The Wilkins also formed a close bond with Andrew Chan, considered the ringleader of the Bali Nine, who was executed in 2015 on the orders of Indonesian officials.
Norman was sentenced to death in 2006 after being caught trying to smuggle more than 8 kilos of heroin out of Bali. The sentence was reduced to life imprisonment in 2008.
He is the youngest member of the Bali Nine, as he was only 18 years old at the time.
Norman married his Indonesian girlfriend Anita in Kerobokan prison in 2014. She is expected to travel to Australia with her 15-year-old daughter Stella.
His devoted father, Michael, is also likely to return to Australia after moving to Bali over concerns about his son’s well-being while in prison.
Anita will need to be granted an Australian visa to join her husband, but their unconventional relationship may not meet strict entry requirements.
“It is possible for a couple to have a genuine marital relationship for the purposes of the Migration Act even if they have never lived together,” Australian immigration lawyer Perry Q. Wood previously told Daily Mail Australia.
‘The question would be whether, despite this, it is possible to demonstrate that the relationship is a genuine marital relationship.
Norman married his Indonesian girlfriend Anita in Kerobokan prison in 2014 (pictured)
Norman hopes to arrive in Melbourne in the coming days, where he will move into a waterfront mansion in Torquay, a seaside town known for its pristine beaches (pictured).
‘Taking into account evidence including financial aspects, the nature of the household, social aspects and the extent of the couple’s commitment to each other.
“This may be difficult if the couple has never lived together, but the assessment will ultimately depend on a delegate of the minister.”
Norman left school at 16 because he wanted to work and earn money rather than finish his HSC and later told ABC News he had been “reckless, insensitive, wanted to take shortcuts in life”.
Norman, who was a naïve teenager when he was first locked up in Kerobokan Prison, discovered that his imprisonment had had a serious effect on his family at home. One of her sisters became anorexic, another was bullied, and her parents received hate mail.
Norman, the youngest member of the Bali Nine, was just 18 years old when he was arrested. In the photo he is accompanied to his sentencing trial in Bali in 2006.
Norman (pictured in 2006), one of only two original Bali Nine who remained in Kerobokan until their release, designed t-shirts, bags and posters sought for sentence reductions.
Norman, one of only two members of the original Bali Nine who remained at Kerobokan until their release, designed T-shirts, tote bags and posters seeking sentence reductions.
But he admitted that each day was “just a fight to keep doing good things” amid the “chaos” of prison.
The remaining members of the Bali Nine will have to undergo rehabilitation in Australia as part of the conditions for their release from Indonesia.
The five men will soon be able to reunite with their families without legal conditions following their arrest.