Six year old British girl discovers plea for help in Christmas card from Chinese prisoner

During the Christmas season of 2019, Florence Widdicombe, a six year old girl in England, found a secret message asking for help on a Christmas card she intended to send to a friend. The message claimed to be from a prisoner from Shanghai Qingpu prison, China, who was forced into labour. The plea urged the recipient to contact Peter Humphrey, a British journalist and former investigative reporter who was imprisoned for two years for exposing corruption within the Chinese government and planned to publish an article about the unwarranted treatment in prison.

Florence’s father, Ben Widdicombe, initially thought it was a prank but upon second thought, he began to suspect the authenticity of the message. He contacted Humphrey through LinkedIn on December 16. The message read, “We are foreign prisoners in Shanghai Qingpu prison China. Forced to work…