He signed a statement for her lawyers and later told Australian Federal Police that he overheard a conversation among other prisoners in jail that the 27-year-old Gold Coast beauty student was the victim of a domestic drug smuggling operation gone wrong. That suspicion was later confirmed in a second conversation he took part in, he said. Ford told Corby's lawyers he could not live with himself if he failed to testify in the case.
Corby was arrested last October after Indonesian customs and police found 4.1 kilograms of marijuana in her unlocked boogie board bag as she passed through Denpasar airport. She has maintained her innocence and said the pillow case-sized stash must have been placed there during the domestic transit leg of her trip between Brisbane and Sydney.
Granting an adjournment last week to give Corby's legal team more time, judges at the Denpasar District Court warned Ford's evidence could backfire on Corby. But her main financial backer, Gold Coast businessman Ron Bakir said Ford could be Corby's last chance to beat a possible firing squad. "We've got to take every opportunity and use it and explore every possible door and he's a key witness right now and you know he could be the possible lifeline of Schapelle Corby," he said.
Corby's lawyer Lely Sri Rahaya Lubis today failed to secure a meeting with Ford and would try again tomorrow before the trial. She would file an application requesting the court be closed to media personnel because of fears for Ford's life, she said.
"The problem is our witness is a prisoner and it's a big risk for him to come here," she said. "We don't want totally closed doors, but we have to be concerned for his safety." The trial comes ahead of a visit to Australia on Wednesday by Indonesia's new president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and amid the heavy press coverage in Australia may cloud a trip billed as a fence-building exercise between Australia and Indonesia.
Keen to avoid any legal finger-pointing or blame, both countries have warned against trial by media. Attorney-General Philip Ruddock rebuked Corby's legal team for using the press to build public support for Corby in Australia, saying evidence should be left to the courtroom.
Australian Federal Police chief Mick Keelty has described Ford's evidence as hearsay on hearsay and said the Indonesian judicial process should be left to run its own course. Ford is on remand on charges of rape, aggravated burglary, threat to kill, unlawful imprisonment and assault. His lawyer Paul Vale said Ford was pleading not guilty and would contest all the charges in his May trial. Bakir said Ford told lawyers he could never live with himself if he did not give evidence on Corby's behalf.
"(Ford) said to us very clearly that he knows, by giving this evidence, he might be killed or he might die," Bakir told ABC radio. "He said that he could never live with himself if he does not come forward. His conscience would not allow it."
John Patrick Ford, the  Australian prisoner who testified at  Schapelle Corby’s Bali drug trafficking trial, has been convicted of 11 charges relating to the rape and assault of a woman.

Ford’s trial was postponed to allow him to travel to Bali in the custody of  Australian Federal Police officers to testify that he had overheard a jailhouse confession. Ford alleged he had heard another prisoner claim ownership of the  marijuana found in Corby’s possession. He told the Balinese court that Corby was the victim of an Australian domestic inter-airport drug-smuggling operation. She is currently serving a 20-year prison term after being convicted in that case.   

In December 2005, a County Court jury convicted Ford of 11 charges, including rape, intentionally causing injury, threatening to inflict serious injury, false imprisonment, aggravated burglary, burglary, making threats to kill and stalking, but a suppression order issued by the court prevented publication of the convictions until the pre-sentencing hearing on Friday, January 27, 2006. 

Ford’s lawyer, Tom Danos, told the hearing that Corby had written to Ford thanking him for risking his own welfare by agreeing to testify. Danos urged the court to be lenient in sentencing Ford, claiming that his victim had effectively forgiven him for his crimes and that he deserved a lighter sentence for co-operating with authorities investigating the Corby case.

Ford has been attacked twice in jail since testifying at Corby’s Bali trial. Since returning from Bali in March, 2005, Ford has remained in protective custody, to prevent further attacks. Danos claimed that this would make any jail sentence particularly difficult for his client.

County Court Judge Margaret Rizkalla adjourned the pre-sentencing hearing to a date yet to be set.