A British ‘mum on the run’ who was jailed in Thailand for overstaying her visa has returned to the UK – but has left her young son there because she’s worried he’ll be taken into care.
Ellis Matthews, 32, who spent her days in Asia sharing tips on how to claim benefits while living abroad, was deported by Thai authorities after spending more than three months locked up in an overcrowded and squalid immigration prison with her son Cairo, 4.
The benefits TikTokker became a controversial figure on social media with the account ‘mum on the run’ because of her bikini clad videos bragging how her ‘dream life’ in Thailand was funded by fiddling £2,300 per month in British benefits.
She claimed to have six mental disorders, a disability and posted videos with advice on how others could cheat the UK benefits system for a life in the sunshine.
She once appeared on reality show Judge Rinder – and claimed to have squandered a £6million fortune.
Ms Matthews was arrested in March at her home in Pattaya and thrown in a dingy Thai prison where she remained for months because she did not have the money to buy herself an airline ticket out of Thailand.
She refused to fly home to the UK because she was convinced that social services would take Cairo from her.
Now Cairo’s been left in the care of a relative in Thailand while Ms Matthews is staying with friends in the UK.
Ellis Matthews, 32 (pictured), who spent her days in Asia sharing tips on how to claim benefits while living abroad, was deported by Thai authorities after spending more than three months locked up in an overcrowded and squalid immigration prison with her son Cairo, 4
The benefits TikTokker (pictured) became a controversial figure on social media with the account ‘mum on the run’ because of her bikini clad videos bragging how her ‘dream life’ in Thailand was funded by fiddling £2,300 per month in British benefits
Ms Matthews was being held in the Mothers and Children Immigration Detention Centre (pictured) in Bangkok where The Daily Mail visited her earlier this year and she revealed the decrepit conditions she endured with her son
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, she said: ‘Leaving Cairo behind was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. But I had no choice because I’m the victim of an online hate campaign that is making me out to be a bad mother.
‘I would never allow him to be passed around suffering in UK care. He has the right to a safe childhood.’
Ms Matthews was being held in the notorious Mothers and Children Immigration Detention Centre in Bangkok when The Daily Mail visited her earlier this year.
She was locked up in a shabby cell for more than 20 hours per day with 16 other female inmates and their children surviving on lumpy rice and rat meat while sleeping on a dirty concrete floor.
Recalling her time there she said: ‘The conditions were horrific. There were hundreds of women and children crammed into filthy rooms, forced to sleep on bare floors without mattresses. Toilets overflowed, disease spread unchecked, and children were locked indoors for 24 hours a day, with just 35 minutes outside per week.
‘My son saw things no toddler should ever see – fights, violent breakdowns, and abuse. Around 30 per cent of detainees were mentally disabled. They were often beaten and left handcuffed to the bars for days at a time. Cairo refused to eat prison food and regressed to full breastfeeding. At one point, I even breastfed another starving child because there was no other way to keep them alive.’
She added: ‘Children were malnourished, untreated, and left in despair. Cairo lost weight, regressed developmentally, and became traumatised. After his eventual release, he was diagnosed with multiple illnesses and needed medical treatment.’
Ms Matthews, who is originally from Bamber Bridge, Lancashire, claimed that since returning to the UK six weeks ago she has been in hiding because of online hate being directed towards her.
They were locked up in a shabby cell for more than 20 hours per day with 16 other female inmates and their children surviving on lumpy rice and rat meat while sleeping on a dirty concrete floor. She cried: ‘This is hell on earth, it’s the worst prison that you can imagine’
A friend told The Daily Mail: ‘Ellis (pictured) is back in the UK living in a secret location. It wasn’t easy for her to leave Cairo with her uncle in Thailand, but she didn’t want to lose him and feel that it’s the best thing for both of them’
She said: ‘I’m too scared to go out of the house because these people are looking for me and threatening to expose my whereabouts. They are constantly making false allegations that I abused my son and want to destroy my life.
‘The depths they have gone to are chilling and have left me deeply disturbed. Both my son and I are suffering. I just want to bring him back to the UK and have a normal life with him. But right now, his safe return is not possible.’
In her controversial videos, Ms Matthews bragged about claiming benefits while being thousands of miles away from the UK.
But she insisted: ‘These videos were just a joke. The truth is that I never got any UK benefits while in Thailand, not a single penny.
‘I can understand why people were angry and upset about them which is why there’s not a lot of sympathy for me. But I was just lying in my videos to get more followers and make some money from my TikTok account. It was all a big hoax, that’s all.’
She added: ‘Most of the time I was just sharing about my life on TikTok that showed me cooking, cleaning, raising my son, and talking openly about the harassment I was facing.
‘Yes, before jail I made some ‘rage bait’ videos, but my genuine accounts always showed our reality. Those truths were twisted and weaponised by stalkers hiding behind fake profiles.’
Since returning to the UK, Ms Matthews has posted a number of videos on social media sharing other vivid details of her time in detention.
In one video she reveals: ‘Imagine being locked in a filthy foreign jail with your three-year-old baby. That was me and my son Cairo. There was no beds no toys just a concrete floor that my three-year-old cried to sleep on every night while I was fighting people to protect him.
‘We were trapped inside Thailand’s immigration detention centre sleeping in filth amongst cockroaches and rats. There was mothers breast feeding on the bare floor no nappies no formula no medical care.
‘Some children were malnourished, and the disabled children were abandoned.’
In another video she cries: ‘Have you ever missed your flight from Thailand, have you ever overstayed your visa, have you ever been arrested for something small? D’you know what actually happens when you get arrested in Thailand. Anybody who has to go to a court in Thailand has to be deported and while you have to wait to be deported you have to wait in an immigration detention centre.’
She continues: ‘If you do not have money when you get there you are going to have a very difficult time. You even need to pay for places to sleep on the floor, and it can be as much as £300 just for a place to lie down. They sell the floor space by the tile.
‘Imagine 80-100 people crammed into one filthy little cell and 30-35 of those people are mentally unwell.’
Ms Matthews has also posted other more bizarre videos – in one she films herself feasting on a mixed grill while in another she shows off an egg and sausage boil she has just made and is seen chomping on it as she stares at the camera.
She has long since maintained that she is the victim of an online hate campaign and posts one video with a picture of herself accompanied by the words: ‘You get used to it. The lies, the hurt, the betrayal, the people not abandoning you and not coming back.’
In one video she reveals: ‘Imagine being locked in a filthy foreign jail with your three-year-old baby. That was me and my son Cairo. There was no beds no toys just a concrete floor that my three-year-old cried to sleep on every night while I was fighting people to protect him’
Ms Matthews claimed to have six mental disorders and a disability and posted videos with advice on how others could cheat the UK benefits system for a life in the sunshine. She once appeared on reality show Judge Rinder – and claimed to have squandered a £6million fortune
Since returning to the UK Ms Matthews, who is originally from Bamber Bridge, Lancashire, has posted a number of videos on social media sharing other vivid details of her time at the Mother and Child Detention Centre (pictured)
Her posts have been met with mixed comments with one claiming: ‘The way she just leaves her son in another country and forgets about him and acts like she’s still relevant.’
Another fumed: ‘Disgusting,’ while one stated: ‘You literally pay 500 baht per day overstay fine. You didn’t pay the fine and let your go through that. Wild.’
But others have been sympathetic to her plight with one comment saying: ‘So glad you are OK and I hope the wee man is ok too xx.’
Another added: ‘Was so unfair what happened to you both all coz of spiteful cruel people.’
She was arrested on 3 March by Thai immigration officials at her home in Pattaya after overstaying her visa which was cancelled on 21 February.
Thai officials revealed that they took action against her after a local anti-child abuse organisation raised concerns about Cairo’s welfare.
But while behind bars, Ms Matthews protested: ‘My visa was cancelled because some people in the UK have been trolling me and accused me of horrible things like human trafficking and child abuse.
They got the Thai authorities involved and it’s led to me ending up here. I should have left when my visa was cancelled but I couldn’t because I didn’t have the money at the time.’
Ms Matthews insisted to The Daily Mail while in detention that she was determined not to return to the UK because of fears that social services would take her son from her. She said: ‘I’m not going to lose Cairo and there’s no way I’m going back to the UK’
She was arrested on 3 March by Thai immigration officials at her home in Pattaya after overstaying her visa which was cancelled on 21 February. Thai officials revealed that they took action against her after a local anti-child abuse organisation raised concerns about Cairo’s welfare
Pictured: a GoFundMe page set up by Kama Clark to raise funds for Ms Matthews
Ms Matthews insisted to The Daily Mail while in detention that she was determined not to return to the UK because of fears that social services would take her son from her.
She said: ‘I’m not going to lose Cairo and there’s no way I’m going back to the UK.
‘I want to go to another country like Cambodia or Turkey. I’m a single mother who’s just trying to survive and raise her son.
‘I’m fighting for my life and future, all I want is to live peacefully with my baby.’
She also insisted that her claims of cheating the UK benefits system were not true.
She said: ‘These videos were just a joke. The truth is that I never got any UK benefits while in Thailand, not a single penny.
‘I can understand why people in the UK are angry and upset about them which is why there’s not a lot of sympathy for me. But I was just lying in my videos to get more followers and make some money from my TikTok account. It was all a big hoax, that’s all.’
