Jailed Bali nine drug mule Scott Rush engaged to a London banker he met for ONE DAY before he was caught smuggling heroin - and they were only reunited after she saw him behind bars on TV

• Nikki Butler met Rush briefly in 2005, before Rush's arrest at a Bali airport
• Butler, 38, made contact with Rush for the first time since in January 2013
  
• The pair met in April and again this month when Rush proposed from Jail
• Rush is serving a life sentence for trafficking 1.3kg of heroin
• Both hope his sentence will be reduced to 15-20 years

By DANIEL MILLS

Published: 20:12 EST, 28 June 2014 | Updated: 02:36 EST, 29 June 2014

Bali Nine drug mule Scott Rush has proposed to a successful London banker whom he met for just one day in 2005 before his dramatic arrest for trying to struggle heroin.

During a prison visit this month Rush dropped to one knee and asked 38-year-old mother-of-two Nikki Butler to marry him, more than nine years after they met for just a few hours before he was stopped with 1.3kg of the drug strapped to his body. 

Ms Butler had lost touch with the 28-year-old drug smuggler during his years of incarceration, but reunited with him in April after she recognised an image of him on British TV which referenced the Bali Nine.

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Bali nine inmate Scott Rush has proposed to successful London banker, Nikki Butler, who has agreed to marry him

Rush and Ms Butler spent just one day together when they met briefly close to 10 years ago

The 28-year-old, one of nine Australians jailed for attempting to traffick drugs from the Indonesian island in 2005, has battled drug problems since he was sentenced.

'Nikki, I love you and you love me. I think we can have a happy ending. Will you marry me?' he said according to The Sunday Telegraph.

Ms Butler was on holiday in Bali when she met Rush for just one day before his arrest at Denpasar airport.

The pair then parted ways before she recognised an image of the drug criminal on British TV and contacted him in January last year.

She flew to Indonesia to visit him in April and again this month when Rush proposed to her.

Ms Butler said the marriage 'feels like the right thing to do,' provided that former addict Rush can turn his life around.

Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph from London she said she feels convinced that the 28-year-old has been punished enough for the crime he committed as a teenager.

'I love him. I know the person Scott really is and he is really, really beautiful person,' she said.

At just 19 years of age Rush was committed to stand trial and sentenced to life in prison after his  arrest at a Denpasar airport with 1.8 kg of heroin concealed on his body.

After an appeal he was given the death penalty - which was later overturned back to a life in 2011. The couple hope that sentence will be reduced to between 15 and 20 years.

Scott Rush was just 19 when he was arrested and convicted on drug smuggling charges

Earlier this year he became the second of the Bali nine drug couriers to be moved out of Kerobokan Prison, moving to Karangasem in Bali’s far east.

Kerobokan prison is awash with drugs, particularly crystal methamphetamine and heroin, with the trade controlled by local gangs. The other Australians serving life sentences in Kerobokan prison are Martin Stephens, Matthew Norman, Si Yi Chen, Tan Duc Than Nguyen and Michael Czugaj.

The group's ring leaders, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, still remain on death row.

Scott Rush was moved from his Kerobokan jail cell, where drugs are rife, to Karangasem prison earlier this year

Seven of the Bali nine drug traffickers after their arrest in 2005