A COUPLE are selling their family home to help fund their battle to free their son from an Indian jail.

Patrick Malluzzo, 30, was sentenced to 10 years for drug trafficking in what his family believes is a miscarriage of justice. He was convicted after cannabis was found in a bag that was not even his.

He is now languishing six-to-a-cell in a prison crawling with cockroaches and lice and has lost three stone in weight.

His parents, Salvatore and Teresa, both 61, have already spent £30,000 on legal bills and travel expenses to visit him and are now putting their home in Upper Heath Lane, Dartford, on the market.

Mr Malluzzo said: "We need to keep raising money to keep fighting. We will just move to a smaller house. The money doesn’t matter. We just want our son back.

"I travel to India alone to see him. I can’t take Teresa and let her see the terrible conditions he’s in."

* See the Dartford Messenger (Thursday, May 17) for the full story.