25th July 2009 will be seven years since I was arrested on suspicion of the murder of Joan Albert and I have been in custody ever since. To this day I have maintained that I am innocent of this crime and many people believe that to be the case, yet here I sit, still in prison facing the everyday monotony of prison life, facing the piecing stares and abuse from other cons higher up in the prison hierarchy. They don’t know me and I’m sure some of them have past secrets they wouldn’t want others to know. I’ve dealt with bigger men in my time.

I am not the same man taken bewilderedly into a Suffolk police station. Where I have become older and wiser, I have also become more pessimistic, cynical and less trusting, but only of authority and of course justice. In the past seven years I have had the privilege to meet some amazing people who tirelessly campaign to right the many wrongs that continue to plaque the (justice) system. A system lacking the compunction to admit it’s flaws and make things right.

There have been three recent high profile cases of miscarriages of justice. Barry George in 2008, Sean Hodgson in April of this year after serving 27 years and Ian Lawless after 8 years in prison was released just last month. I am happy to see them finally get their justice, but it isn’t really justice if they should never have spent a day behind bars is it?

Then there are those who cannot get their cases back to the court of appeal. I’m in no doubt that the public would feel that there is a good reason for them not being able to get their convictions quashed – because they must be guilty? No, because the system isn’t about innocence or guilt at this stage, it’s about whether the conviction is ’safe by law’.

All evidence available at trial is not considered when it comes to appeals. the question raised is actually whether new evidence can be found. New evidence is something fresh and was not available at the time of the trial. An example of that would be a CCTV video showing that MR X was not in fact the man with the gun. If it was available at the time of the trial but not used for whatever reason, that’s hard luck. Whereas if the CCTV tape was suddenly discovered then MR X would probably be given leave to appeal.

There are many men and women languishing in prison because although they are innocent, they cannot find the evidence to satisfy the criteria for appealing their convictions.

On the internet there are many sites telling the stories of those who find themselves locked up in prison for crimes they did not commit. These have usually been set up by families and friends of the innocent person. There are also various organizations who campaign for these people, such as Innocence Network UK, MOJUK, SAFARI. All these people and organizations are unsung heroes of the justice system, tirelessly campaigning. trying to raise awareness of the cases of those who unfortunately find themselves in prison for crimes they have not committed.

My opinion of these campaigns is that the majority of the public couldn’t care less. The old cliche of ‘there’s no smoke without fire’ seems to fit quite nicely with them, but it’s not until it happens to someone they know that they start to dig a little deeper and look a little further and it’s then when they realize that something is very wrong with the justice system in this country.

I was lucky enough to be chosen by the BBC for a Rough Justice documentary which was aired in Spring 2007. It helped my confidence levels at that time which were at an all time low. I had been using heroin as a coping mechanism and found myself in a really bad way. The documentary was based around a team of students from the University of Bristol Innocence project who were asked to investigate my case to see if they could find anything which would help get it back to the court of appeal. All the findings were forwarded to the CCRC and I am still waiting for an answer from them as to whether they will refer my case.

Many thanks to all involved in that work, including Michael Naughton, INUK, Gabe Tan, INUK, Kathy and Jose at the BBC and all the others from UoBIP.

I am also lucky enough to have the support of my amazing wife Stephanie, who I married last year here in Kingston prison. She keeps my spirits up and does all she can to help make this nightmare a little easier. She’s also doing as much as she can to get me out of prison and one of those things is a demonstration outside the Royal Courts of Justice at the end of July, which coincides with my seventh year of incarceration. I invite anyone who’s not up to much that day to join her and show your support.

So what does the future hold for me? I will have served 13 years before I am even considered for parole, but I could be in prison for a lot longer than that. The Home Office would have people belive that maintaining innocence is not a barrier to release, but in practical terms I can never demonstrate remorse for a crime I have not committed, so I could find myself still locked up years after my parole eligibility date of 2015.

I don’t know if i will get my chance back in court to prove my innocence, but Stephanie and I will keep fighting to that end. I need to get my life back so that Stephanie and me can be living as a married couple should, so that we can start a family, so that Suffolk Police can re-open the investigation and catch the real killer who is still out there walking among you.