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She’s back! Schapelle Corby smuggles herself into Brisbane

With her face hidden by sunglasses and a scarf, Schapelle Corby leaves the parole office.

With her face hidden by sunglasses and a scarf, Schapelle Corby leaves the parole office. AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati

Convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby has landed back in Australia from Bali after managing to thwart nosy media, choosing instead to share her journey with her newly acquired 72,000 Instagram followers.

The 39-year-old touched down in Brisbane just after 5.00am on Sunday after making a last-minute change to her flight and switching to Malindo Air, rather than the Virgin Airlines plane media had been expecting.

And while the press gang was frustrated by Ms Corby’s move fellow passengers on the budget airline were more than a little annoyed.

“They said that the special guest had to get off first.They blocked everyone from business class. A few people were annoyed about that, because they blocked the toilets as well – so people who wanted to go to the bathroom had to wait,” one passenger told the ABC.

And it wasn’t just those who flew with Ms Corby who were miffed by the flyer who was “hiding her face and looked very nervous”. Passengers on the Virgin flight she used to decoy the media are also angry.

“We were told they blocked every business class seat in Virgin as well, which delayed their flight,” AAP reports. “Friends of mine were really annoyed, because they were delayed as well.

“They kept paging her over the speakers for her on that [Virgin] flight, and she was never on that flight.”

A spokeswoman for the Corby family, Eleanor Whitman, told the ABC the family had safely left the airport.

“To all those in Australia and all those in Bali who have been there throughout this difficult journey, your support has not gone unnoticed,” she said.

“In the spirit of humility and the spirit of dignity, we ask all parties to show respect for the family’s privacy during this time.”

While a massive media pack had staked out Brisbane International Airport, it is believed Ms Corby was able to leave the airport through a back entrance.

Media waiting at Brisbane’s Sofitel Hotel and Ms Corby’s home in Loganlea were left disappointed when she did not show at either location after leaving the airport.

To document her travels, the former beauty therapist opened an Instagram account on Friday that attracted more than 3000 followers almost immediately. Within hours that figure had swollen to 30,000-and-growing.

For her first post on the eve of her deportation, she shared a photograph of the two dogs, Luna and May, she had to leave behind. “Going to miss these two,” Ms Corby said.

Ms Corby then proceeded to share selfies from inside the black Toyota SUV that transported her and her sister Mercedes from her Kuta villa to the airport, as well as snap of her parole paper work.

Ms Corby was 27 when she was arrested at Bali’s International Airport in 2004 for smuggling 4.2 kilograms of marijuana in her boogie board bag. She was convicted the following year, never admitting guilt and claiming to have been set up.

Schapelle Corby (left) and sister Mercedes hide their faces leaving the parole office. Photo: Instagram

Ms Corby braved a smothering throng of photographers besieging her Bali villa to pay a final visit to the parole office on Saturday night – the first step on her long-awaited return journey to Australia.

Jostled in the crush, she held her handbag, emblazoned with the question “Where is William Tyrell”, above her head as a private security detail shepherded her to a waiting car.

Her interest in the missing NSW boy, who vanished from his home in 2014, was not explained, but his family gave a statement to The West Australian. 

“We appreciate Schapelle Corby’s concern about William’s disappearance and using this media opportunity to increase awareness that William is still missing,” Where’s William? campaign director Clare Collins said.

“However, William’s family and the campaign have absolutely no association with Schapelle, her supporters or her family.”

Ms Corby’s short journey to the parole office was accompanied by an armoured car convoy, guarded by 275 Kuta and Denpasar police officers and tailed by a clamouring press army.

Once there, she had the stamped and signed paper granting permission to leave the country displayed for the cameras by officials.

“She is now free,” said Bali’s chief law enforcement official Kompyang Adnyana.

Again there was pandemonium, with reporters knocked to the ground in the scrum as Ms Corby emerged after 15 minutes to be bundled into the rear seat of a black Toyota SUV beside sister Mercedes.

There was a cacophony of shouted questions but no answers as Ms Corby pulled a scarf in front of her face and ducked her head before her car and convoy inched out of the parole office compound and onto the road to Denpasar Airport.

Shrouded by a scarf, Schapelle Corby regains her freedom at the probation office.

Released from active supervision a few hours early, she would not be technically free until midnight, but no one was watching the clock.

“She is no longer in detention,” said the head of Bali’s law and human rights office, Ida Bagus Ketut Adnyana.

Ms Corby flew out of Bali just after 10pm local time on Saturday.

But while reports suggested around 40 journalists had booked tickets on a Virgin Airlines flight in hopes of catching a glimpse of Ms Corby, Mercedes rained on their parade by posting a snap of two Malindo Air tickets to her Instagram.

In the two weeks before her flight home, Ms Corby rarely left the modest laneway villa she called home, with the media pack outside growing larger every day – and tempers inside wearing thin.

When one lensman raised a camera to peer over the fence his curiosity was rewarded with a bucket of water tipped over his head.

Queensland police were seen at the home of Corby’s mother, Rosleigh Rose on Friday, where they were discussing Ms Corby’s arrival in Australia on Sunday.

Her father, Michael, passed away in 2008 from prostate cancer.

It remains unclear if Ms Corby will stay at her mother’s home outside Brisbane or head to the Gold Coast with Mercedes.

Ms Corby can now speak freely to media but not for profit, as Australia’s proceed of crime laws mean she cannot sell her story.

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