Yesterday we were lucky enough to have a talk from Paul Blackburn who was wrongly convicted of attempted sexual assault and murder of a nine year old boy and was put in prison for 25 years at the young age of fifteen. He was only fourteen when the crime was committed and was told the description of the offender matched his own.
At the time of the investigation every man from the age of 15-25 was interviewed by the police. Paul suffered a four hour 20 minute interview in which over 3 hours consisted of constant interviewing by two senior policeman with no stoppage breaks. At the end of this long interview Paul was forced to sign a written confession. He was not accompanied by an adult throughout the whole process neither did he have a solicitor to represent him. It is also relevant to point out that three other males including Paul's older brother also confessed but retracted their statements.
In August 2004 his case was reviewed by the CCRC (Criminal Cases Review Commission) where his case was referred to the Court of Appeal. His conviction was ruled unsafe and overturned in May 2005 27 years after he had been convicted. The evidence was based on the lengthy questioning that he had endured from the police and was viewed as a young and vulnerable suspect who was pressured into confessing. It also went on the fact that he had no parent or guardian to support him and the lack of legal advice he received. It was also mentioned that the police were involved with the wording of the statement of confession which should never have been used as evidence in his trial the appeal court ruled.
When Paul was speaking it was obvious that he was angry with what had happened to him by the constant use of his swearing but it also came across that he was very grateful that he had escaped jail. He also came across at times as nervous and quite upset by the way he had been treated and most importantly missed out on the prime time of his life.
He started by explaining to us that on the night of the crime he was sat at home watching telly with members of his family. As the people he was with were his family and two people under the age of 13 that were excluded he didn't have any reliable alibis that he could use. He didn't know how else to defend himself because all he knew was that he was at home sat in a room watching the television. He was forced to sign a confession and wasn't even aware of the extent of the case until fifteen years of being in prison. This is because as he was a young boy at the time he was convicted therefore he was put into juvenile and all of the paperwork was dealt with by lawyers.
He said 'the home office will never admit that they are wrong in cases. Your fighting the whole of society by being convicted at such a young age for a crime like that. Prison itself didn't do anything positive for me in any shape or form. I thought I was going to die there in prison and was told this a lot to.'
He talked about the extent he had to argue with the lawyers and how they didn't ever do exactly what he asked them to. Instead they went by the law which they obviously know better however he said that he was the one that knew his case better so they should have listened to him. Channel 4 Trial and Error programme was set out to find miscarriages of justice and went through all of the files and statements etc to try and piece a story together. But it was the Guardian that helped him a lot as they chose 120 cases of which his was one where he was actually given a solicitor again after fifteen years since the last time he was in court.
He went on to say the only thing that gets people out of jail is the publicity they gain and the fact that people write about it. He said the people inside know all of the facts and figures but they are worthless they just concentrate on getting out. He said that all he could think of in jail was 'survival and nothing more.' Mike Norton was the person that set up the innocence project at Bristol University that is a big help in getting miscarriages of justice sorted out today. He said that the CCRC did their job but that is all he can say they did. 'The only person that got me out of jail was me and only me, I was on my own.' He also went on to say that you are 'absolutely powerless in prison.' The fact that he was sentenced to 99 years in prison would have been a scary thought. This is why it is obvious that he said 'prison is set out to kill you, in mates told me I would be found hanging from the bars the next morning.'
He talked about being in prison with murderers and how everywhere you walk you are constantly thinking that someone could come up and stab you or something. After all they have been capable of committing the crimes before so why would they care if they killed someone in prison, its just another person to add to the numbers. Of course the sad thing is that Paul was in prison for the prime time of his life as he didn't get of until he was fourty years old. 'I cant imagine living a life like you guys will, it was all taken away from me he said with great heart ache. But on a more positive note once he was out of prison Paul went to work in a pub with his mate in a Cornwall holiday village which he needed as it gave him a routine.
The sad thing is he didn't know or recognise any of his family anymore as they hadn't bothered to help him during his trial. He also confessed that he still 'wakes up at night screaming and sweating from having nightmares.' But he has a positive mind and stated that he is 'one of the luckiest men alive as far as I am concerned. I refused to be their victim and I have to do something positive so they can't damage me anymore than they already have.' He was disgusted that on his 27 year court appeal where he was finally released as 'free' the solicitors and police didn't even bother to turn up to court. It was even more interesting to know that the police that has wrongly convicted him are now living off full police pension.
Paul now goes around to students, universities and schools to share his inspiring story. He loves doing this as well as working on the Innocence Project to make sure no one else gets wrongly convicted and has to suffer for something they didn't do like he did. He lives in Cornwall now which he views as a sanctuary to him as he cant take the madness of the city anymore. The reason for this is that spending 25 years in prison was constant screaming, shouting and anger where there isn't a minute of the day where you get peace and quiet. He said that even at night you are constantly listening to noises and the footsteps outside your cell door. 'depending on who's they are determines if they are going to come in and kick your head in or not, you cant even sleep in peace.'
He spoke to us about life when he came out of prison and said that when he came out he was still a virgin and didn't know a thing about life as he was taken from society as a teenager. 'You are constantly living under stress and threat when you are in prison.' He said when he came out he was promised psychiatrist help and to be put into rehabilitation. However all he was given was being put in a mental hostel up in Manchester which was the 'worst place' he has ever been to.
However he managed to get everyone moved out of there as he wrote to a paper explaining to them what happened when he was in there. A patient in the hostel committed suicide by jumping from a high floor window over a dispute with a worker over a sandwich. Paul told us that the worker wouldn't let this man have a sandwich as he was hungry so he jumped from a window and died on the ground. The hostel rang for the police but no one bothered to even call an ambulance!
A regular question that he gets asked regularly is are you scared of anything? His response to everyone is that he is scared of nothing. And by nothing he means everything because it is 'nothing that got me put into jail in the first place for 25 years!' He has no family now as he explained that as a child he had a 'violent and abusive' upbringing and that he only ever hears from anyone if they need money or think that he may have some money.
He also explained to us that there are many 'innocent' people in prison that are wanting to get out. He said that there is a difference between the people that are innocent and not innocent. He said the people that are 'factually innocent' are the ones that have no knowledge of the crime committed like himself. However the ones that have committed the crime wont hold back in saying so and will change their stories each time which cant happen if you are innocent and only know your one truthful story. I was also interested to hear that the prison guards move you around constantly so you can't get comfortable and gain a lot of support. He said support means everything to prisoners and by moving prisoners around it prevents them from having family support, legal support and campaign support as no one knows where you are located. He spoke of a friend in prison who's mum came over from Belgium to visit him however that morning he was moved up north somewhere so she didn't even get to visit him that day!
0 comments:
Post a Comment