BEING LOCKED UP WITH MURDERERS DROVE ME TO POINT OF SUICIDE
FOR eight months Robert Adlington found himself lockedup alongside murderers and rapists and admitted that he came close to committing suicide as his despair set in.
After being denied bail he was sent to Nottingham Prison, a category B establishment housing around 1,000 criminals as well as those on remand.
He said: “Those first three weeks in prison were a living hell. I could easily have topped myself.
“I was absolutely terrified. Everybody in there knew each other, it was like a reunion meeting place for crooks and criminals – I felt like I was an uninvited guest at a get-together and had no idea what to do or how to cope.
“I was just left by the wayside. At no stage did anybody from the prison service check on me or ask me if I was alright, not once.”
Incredibly as he contemplated suicide it was his cell mate – a convict serving life for murder – spotted his distress and helped him out.
He added: “In the end a murderer helped get me through it. He said I would end up dying if I didn’t quickly put everything that had gone on in the outside world out of my head. He said I had to wipe my brain clean and just accept my new surroundings. It was difficult but with his advice I just about coped.
“But it was a living hell and something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.
“Being in prison after committing a crime must be horrific enough but I can barely explain how it feels to find yourself in that situation when you know you are completely innocent.”
He added: “I could have been looking at spending 30 years inside a cell if those messages had not finally been disclosed. I knew I was innocent but nobody else did until those messages finally arrived and proved what I had been telling the police from day one.
“But to have found myself locked up with murderers, drug addicts and violent robbers just because somebody said something I still find incredible.
“Every time we applied for bail I got my hopes up but every time they were dashed and I was sent back to my cell.
“I now need to try and rebuild my life but I feel I have lost almost everything and nobody has even had the decency to say sorry.”
“Nobody tells you anything. I didn’t even know how to place food orders or how to serve up the meals. Nobody explains anything, you are just expected to know the system and get on with it.
“There’s always things going off, you can’t relax and you need to watch your back all the time.”