YouSaid · the spoken record

Raphael Rowe

lines on the record: 155
first: 2022-11-10
most recent: 2022-11-10
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Again, it was that damage limitation. It was judges sort of saying, you know, these convictions are unsafe and we're releasing these men. But we're not saying they're innocent.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was released an innocent man. They recognized that the home office have a criteria where they only compensate people who are innocent. And I was compensated for the years that I was in prison. The rules have changed now and they don't compensate people who have been wrongly convicted, miscarriage of justice victims, unless there is some insurmountable information where they have an obligation and I don't quite know how it understands, but it was vindicative when the Home Secretary, in my case, the new Home Secretary, I think it was Jack Straw at the time. Agreed to compensate us ridiculous amounts of money, not as in wealthy. They could never compensate me for a day of my life in prison, let alone 12 years. But it was, again, another indication and a vindication of our years of being wrongly imprisoned”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“These men should be released or shouldn't be released. But the simple fact that the judges had reached the conclusion that our convictions were unsafe, the simple fact that they quashed my convictions and released me from the hellhole that I'd been in for the last twelve years was indicative that they knew because they'd already rejected my appeal many years ago and for years on they wouldn't hear my appeal. So there was a damage limitation. And if they really, in my view, if they really believe people are guilty in prison, regardless of the information and evidence, they don't release them. You don't get out. The Court of Appeals is one of the hardest places to get your convictions overturned. So, when I walked out, despite the judge's reservations and the court's reservations,”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Why quashing my conviction they Accepted that the evidence against me was unsafe. As I said, when the judge quash my convictions and made comments about no declaration of innocence or that this is not a judgment of innocence, well, who puts them in a position to make those kind of decisions? But it was typical of the kind of racist system that I'd experienced. We'd beaten the system. We'd shown them that they locked up three black men for a crime and crimes they didn't commit and they just could not accept that. And so their final word at the appeal court to try and damage or limit the damage that he had done to the criminal justice system was to say something that would make journalists question whether”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Couldn't kiss anyone, couldn't hug anyone, couldn't do the things that people were doing in their 20s, developing friendships, relationships. None of that was afforded to me. So when I walked down those steps and I shouted in the media because there was interest in my convictions being overturned that they'd stolen those years, all of that was a release. What happened next in my life.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I would argue I'd won back my freedom. I fought so fucking hard for my freedom. At that moment, I'd won it. My sisters won it. My mum, my dad, my other sisters, my campaigners, the journalists, all those people that came on my side, my family were always there, but all these other people that were now on my side. Together we walked to the front of the Court of Appeal and I'm waving my fist and I shouting, you know, I spent all of my 20s locked up. in maximum security prisons in Britain for crimes that I didn't commit the best years of my life. I don't know what I would have become Steve, as you asked me at the beginning. But what I do know is that in those 20 years, I could have become anything. I could have met a person and been offered an opportunity. I could have been dead. I could have been anything. But what I was wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for 12 years where I couldn't love anyone.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Almost instantly. And that was probably the only time I'd cried in all those 12 years since I'd been wrongly convicted. It was also the first time where I probably relaxed, you know, the threat of violence in prison is always there. The dangers that come with... In prison, the lack of having anything and all the big things like not being able to open a door or make decisions and choices for yourself, all of that was lifted from me at that very moment where I”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, in all the years that I was in prison, I never opened a door for myself. So, this last door down in the dungeons of the Court of Appeal in central London was opened by prison officer for the last time, and I knew that I was walking out of that door. Didn't think about it at that very moment. That on reflection and realizing that that door that was being opened would be the last door that I wouldn't be able to open for myself. And when I walked out of the... Court of Appeal door, and I saw my sisters, my mum and my supporters. I was able to fall into the arms of my youngest sister, who was my most advocate and cry for the very first time. And at that moment The anger and the bitterness and the volatility in me and everything that got me through those 12 years almost fell off of me onto the floor in those tears. And that changed me.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I walked up those steps at the Court of Appeal on the very last day, the judges quashed my convictions, made some derogatory remarks about the safety or non-safety of my convictions. But it was over. My convictions were quashed. At that moment, it's hard to describe how I felt because I didn't feel anything. I really didn't feel anything until I was taken back down the stairs. They did something that I was unable to do in all those years that I was in prison and that was open. that the last door Didn't have a handle on the inside.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Conviction they knew as did the prosecutor, they knew that they couldn't withhold this conviction anymore. But what they did is they reserved judgment. And despite my defense barrister saying, well, you know, you should be freeing these men at least on bow until that judgment is made. They didn't. And so I was dragged back down to the courts and taken back to the prison where I waited for another. And this was in the year 2000 where I waited for another few months, few weeks sorry before I got that knock on my cell door from the governor saying, can you come down? I've got something to tell you. Your case decision is coming in tomorrow. So we need to take you back down to London today.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In London, met up with my co-defend for the first time in many years, Michael, and the other co-defendant. We went into the appeal call and there was this three-week hearing in front of some senior judges about the rights and wrongs of the evidence, non-disclosure of evidence, payment of rewards, issue around identification. So the whole case, just between my defense lawyer, the prosecution and the judges was played out almost like it was at the original trial. Only now there was far more information. There was a European court decision. There was a secret recording from the BBC Rough Justice Program. So all this was being played out. And there was a lot of attention from journalists. Only this time on my side as opposed to writing that I'm a monster and everything. So we've won over the journalists. We're also concerned about our convictions. But even on the last day of that hearing, the judges were pretty cruel, actually, in that they didn't make a decision there and then. They knew they were going to quash my.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We were quite serious to my own well being and health to try and draw attention to my plight, if only to get journalists, to tell other people what I was going through in the hope that other people would support me. And it worked. They did. And they made enough noise for the politicians and the system to understand that there was this guy who'd been in prison for many years for a serious offense that he didn't commit, who was not giving up. And it worked because even the prison guards were now slipping newspapers under my door with the article and banging on my door and saying, good luck, you know, a couple of years earlier, they were banging open my door and dragging me down the segregation block and giving me a kick in because in their eyes I was a convicted guilty man who was just making trouble for the prison system. And so by the time I got to the court of appeal, so I take them from Kingston Prison in Portsmouth, brought to Pentonville prison in.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I've just talked about the European court decision, so the unanimous decision from the judges, that judgment came down. My lawyers were kind of bouncing up and down saying, this is it, this is the moment the appeal court and the home secretary. I mean, I'd been on hunger strike and did many other little stunts.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“21 judges at the European Court of Human Rights unanimously concluded that I was denied the right to a fair trial because the police had conspired with witnesses and suppressed evidence and there were questions about the identity of the true perpetrators. When those 21 judges told the British court system to relook my conviction, that was the kind of final straw. And I knew then that my convictions were going to be overturned.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“the leader of this M25 gang etc but I was sitting on the toilet in my cell in Kingston prison and we had this little TV monitor mobile phones didn't still exist at this point so there were TVs on these little kind of boxes and there was one circular way circulating around the prison and it was it was given to me that night because the BBC Rough Justice program were about to broadcast an hour long investigation into my wrongful convictions that was the first domino I think that was Where a credible platform like the BBC with serious journalists who knew their stuff, took these things serious, started to question my conviction. And that led to an avalanche of other media outlets taking an interest. But the application I told you about that I tapped on my typewriter to European Court of Human Rights was, I think, the final straw because when”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Think it was the BBC Rough Justice program. So, this is a program that used to exist on primetime BBC One. And it was a program where journalists investigated potential miscarriages of justice. And I'd had journalists at this point already visit me in prison. And as you rightly say, when I made those calls or spoke to them when I shouldn't have spoken to them, I used to get punished for it because there was a policy where prisoners were not allowed to talk to journalists and tell journalists their story, not necessarily because they were victims of a miscarriage of justice. It just wasn't allowed because it was something to protect victims. But it was really when after journalists are starting to write stories about me. So my tack, my tactic, if you like, of understanding journalism started to work. I was getting journalists coming to meet me. They were starting to question the safety of my conviction or at least writing stories about who I was 10 years on. The person that was deemed a monster, the person that was supposed to be.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That nanosecond time, and he walked into the room as I was kind of mid-flow, if you like, and picked up the tea and biscuits. Or he dropped off, I picked up, I can't remember if he dropped off the tea and biscuits, but he didn't bat an eyelid. He literally just came into the room. We were kind of about to kind of react in a way, but we didn't have any time. He just literally came in, picked up the tray or dropped off the tray and just walked straight back out. So he was well aware that anybody he agreed to give one of those visits. It would be an opportunity, and I saw it as a great thing. You know, there are not many people in prison who have sympathy for prisoners or would do something to allow them a moment like I was allowed on that occasion. And after such a long time of no intimacy.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's not even religious, but they have a chapel in prison where people can go and they can practice their religions, but they would have rooms in there. You know, it might be his office. On this occasion, it was like a communal area that the chaplain see and people coming in to visit him on official visit would sit down and have a cup of tea and whatever. I was in the room with my Kind of pen pal girlfriend, if you like, at the time. I'm going to give you the graphic detail because it's important. So, you know, we're kind of doing it. We're kind of like, I'm kind of going at it.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So he wasn't smuggling them in or anything like that. So they would come through the normal visiting channels, but you would have approval from the priest or the chaplain. To have this visit, not in the normal visiting hall, but in the chapel as a religion.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You, and as I said at the beginning of this, you know, I wasn't somebody who had people coming up on the visit giving me big hugs and cuddles. So it was a real, real challenge, just one of the challenges that you face at the end of being in prison. And there are many, many more. The psychological as well as the physical. But I was privileged to be in one of those rooms on one of these occasions. Would I have reported that chaplain that he was watching me? No, I wouldn't. I would have used it to get another visit. But unfortunately somebody did grasp on him. And so he was removed from the prison system. And that privilege that the prison officers didn't know about stopped.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was able to have intimacy to the point where I came in nanoseconds kind of thing. I know the detail too much, but the reality is when you've been wanking for so many years and you've not had any intimacy, it is a real hard thing to not come in second nanoseconds, but to rekindle those kind of relationships, you know, how to become intimate with somebody when you've been deprived of that for so long.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“From a girlfriend or a loved one outside saying that they don't want anything more to do with you and that you need a private visit, a visit that is not in the visitings hall with everybody else, but maybe in a quieter place. And so this chaplain was known for helping people out in this way. So he would allow people to book this private visit where they would have their loved one come in, their girlfriends or their wives come in. But what he had was a hole in the wall and what he did is he used to spy on people who were in those private visits, who took those opportunities to have a quick bit of sex and he was spying on them and they discovered that he had this whole in the wall and was watching prisoners have sex with their wives or girlfriends during these encounters. Now I would argue that most prisoners wouldn't care less because I was one of those prisoners and after 10 years for the first time”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“For those who want to hear this story is about a chaplain, right? So prison is a place where you don't have conjugal visits, i.e., you know, married men and women who are in prison are not entitled to have any intimacy with their husband, wife, girlfriends when they're in prison. That's just not how it works in this country. In other countries, it does. But in this country, it doesn't. But there are some people in prison, including this chaplain in this particular prison, who had sympathy for prisoners. He had an understanding that intimacy, an opportunity for intimacy was limited. And so if, and we prisoners knew this, if you could get your loved one outside, girlfriend outside or someone you wanted to have sex with outside, write the chaplain a letter to say to the chaplain that you are thinking about dumping your boyfriend or you get that letter and take it to the chaplain and say, I've just received this dear John, a dear John being a”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I didn't know how to, and I didn't. Didn't feel that was necessary. I knew she lied. She knew she lied. We got, when the Rough Justice Program was made, they secretly recorded the guy on their show admitting that he conspired with the police. This was one of the key pieces of new information that Rough Justice broadcast. But they secretly recorded this witness admitting to them that he'd fabricated evidence for the police in the M25 case. He didn't know that they were secretly recording that conversation for the program they were making about my case. And so that in itself became a key piece of evidence. But I never... From my conviction to this day, had any contact with the ex girlfriend or that guy who we know told lies.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“She sent me that letter because she wanted to help me, and it wasn't true. So the reward, we believe, was paid to her to tell lies for the police and to this police informer for him to tell lies. And we still believe that today, despite the fact that the prosecution using public interest immunity certificates or these kind of secret documents have still, to this day, never disclosed who got that reward money. I wrote to the Daily Mao and said, you paid this money to these witnesses who have been told, who have told lies, you paid this money to a witness who was a key suspect and could be responsible for these crimes. Surely there is an onus and a responsibility on you, the Daily Mount had disclosed this information, and they never did.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“make in love at the time the murder was committed she tells the police that the prosecution accept that but then say it's a mystery how I got to the scene of the crime There's no mystery I wasn't there. She sent me a letter When I was on remand Apologizing for the lies that she told and the lies that she told For the police was that I left her at 1 30 in the morning after we made love. The murder had already been committed by 11 o'clock that night. The first robbery had already been committed by half past 12. So even on her lies. It still didn't allow for me to be a part of this gang and a part of these crimes. So when she sent me this letter to Brixton Prison, I presented it to my defence, the prosecution, become aware of it. And we believe that she was paid a reward to... Say”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And this girlfriend of mine were paid that reward money to give false evidence. And that was part of the evidence that we presented to the European Court of Human Rights. And they said that the prosecution of the police and the Daily Mail need to disclose whether these witnesses did get this money, because if they did, it would explain their incentive to tell lies. So the girlfriend, for example, just to put this into context, when I was on remand and she was my alibi as well as a prosecution witness, so I was in bed making love with her on the night that these crimes were being committed. I was in bed making love with her at the very moment that the murder was being committed some 40 miles away from where I lived. Despite that alibi, I was still convicted. So if you think the identification issue is outrageous, the fact that I was in bed with a girlfriend.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There was at the time that the police were hunting this gang, a reward put up £5,000 in 1988 lot money, £20,000 by the Daily Mao making the reward £25,000. And so the theory, and I say it's theory because we've never been given the documents to prove what we know is true. So the theory is that one of the key witnesses in my case who gave evidence against me that led to my convictions was one of my ex-girlfriends. Alongside her was a white guy who was a suspect at one point, the only person in the case with blue eyes and fair hair which fitted a description of the perpetrator, but he was a known police informer and worked on other cases with the police. So there was a conclusion that he...”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The strange thing is he just got on with it. He didn't nobody knew nobody knew what he'd attempted except me because I stopped him from doing what he was doing I never found out why he attempted to take his own life but you live with those stories never having an answer and that's prison for you there are people in who have done horrific things and you know they've done horrific things and there are people in there who shouldn't be there not because they're innocent simply because they did what they did to survive or to provide for their family but you never know why you never get the real answers because some people are just not prepared to share it”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Die. In fact, I saved the guy's life. When I was in one of the last prisons that I was in, I became a gym oldly, somebody that helped other people, PE instructor, you could say within prison. The only job I would do. And so I would be let out of myself slightly earlier than most guys. And I was let out of my cell doing my thing, going down to the gymnasium and I was walking past a guy's cell and I saw his legs dangling and I run into the cell and I grabbed his legs and I lifted him up and he was doing as you do. He was shaking and I managed to get him down. Didn't know what to do, you know, he didn't die. He recovered. I went to the gym. On my way back he was quite rude actually because I saved his life. He wasn't grateful or thankful. And it was an awkward one because I thought I saved this guy's life. I did what anybody would have done”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, this was an elderly black guy, been in prison probably 20 years for murder. He was hoping that he would get released. And he got a letter. You know, people ignored him. He's the kind of guy that you kind of walk past most of the time. And you might give him a little bit of burned cigarettes for him to smoke or something, but he's one of those guys that you kind of, you know, he's there, but he's not imposing or anything. But he got that letter from the parole board that denied him the next opportunity to be released. And after 20 odd years in prison, he knew that he was destined to spend probably another five or ten years in prison. And he took his life. He hung himself and he killed himself. It's not the first time that I saw somebody.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So no, I was never going to spend the rest of my life in prison because I was going to fight for my freedom until I was freed. And I did and I won.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And say because I had time, wait for it to dry, and then I could tick tick over it again and carry on writing the document that I was writing so you can imagine one piece of paper. I'm writing an application to European court 200 pages long. Can you imagine how long that took me on a bloody typewriter because there were no computers and no access to anything but that typewriter? Can't remember who I got that typewriter from or where it came from, but I'm truly grateful because not only did it give me the tool to fight my wrongful conviction, but it allowed me to understand myself and to learn for myself how to use new words, how to articulate myself, how to express myself, how to win an argument, how to change a situation. And that's what I did in that time that I was. And we're talking seven, eight years into my prison sentence now.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Escape in the reality of the suffering that I was going through inflicting pain on others being inflicted pain on me was a way of kind of dampening that pain, that suffering. It wasn't until I started to educate myself around the areas I needed to educate myself and also grow up and become more wiser and listen to the wiser guys who had spent many, many years in prison and were telling me don't do it the way you're doing it. You will not get out some high profile miscarriage of justice individuals who have been successful in their own campaigns were telling me you can't do it the way that you're doing it. You need to get the tools, pens and paper. I remember having my first tick tick tight typewriter tick tick tick in my cell. That's what we're dealing with. There was no internet. There was no emails. There was no mobile phones or anything like that. I was doing it with the raw materials. Tick tick tick made a spelling mistake. How came the tipx? I go through the tip.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was never going to spend the rest of my life in prison for a crime I didn't commit. Not going to come out of there in a box. I was not going to let them kill me. And there have been and was occasions where prison officers beat me so badly. The easiest way to get through it would have been to die. I was not going to spend the rest of my life in prison because I was going to fight for my freedom. Initially, I thought it was the physical fight that was going to get me. They're confronting the prison office, fighting prisoners, you know, getting... Was my way out. That was really just me”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Everyone has a story, don't they, about hope, you know, how we listen to other people? It's a self-determination that you can only find when you discover yourself in a situation that you cannot control. You have no control over, but you can control what you do for yourself, giving you their business plan, hoping that you will do something for them would be great. But you can't do it for everyone. So they have to do it for themselves.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That was my ultimate motive. It was about understanding how journalists work and then using those journalistic to get my message out there. And so that would be my argument. The guy's giving you their giving you their kind of business plan. Why give it to you? Why not take that business plan? Understand it themselves and do it for themselves. Yes, they do need somebody to offer them a space or a piece of opportunity, but they need to do it for themselves. And that's what I learned during those early years or late years that I was in prison, that you cannot rely on one person to dig you out or help you out of the situation. You have to do it yourself, which is why I say these seeds that were planted in me from the beginning, they grew into the resilience, the determination, you know, hope, which is, you know.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“With, you know, support my foundation, that's what you should do with my foundation. But the important thing is during my time inside, I didn't study the law, but I got to know what the law was all about because I needed to fight my wrongful convictions by understanding the law. Journalists were writing stories about me being a monster. The sun newspaper was calling for hanging to be brought back. And if they had their way, I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you today because I would have been hung, strung up for a crime I didn't commit and then pardon 10, 15 years later when they recognize my innocence. Fortunately, I was shrewd enough, and this would be my message to prisoners, to be shrewd enough that I studied a correspondence journalism course in prison because I knew I needed the media to tell you and other people on the outside world that I was innocent. So I studied the media to understand how the media worked so that I could plant stories in newspapers, national newspapers, challenging issues to do with prison or disclosure of evidence or conviction. So not specifically about my case.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That any prisoner listening to this story, sitting in a cell, believing that they're innocent or even guilty, but not seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, take it from me. There is a fucking light at the end of the tunnel if only you use your time constructively. If you sit on your bed, sit in your cell, look at the bars and don't do something to change the person that put you in prison, especially the guilty ones, they're just going to end up. In prison, or your destiny is going to fall flat if you have any destiny. Use the time constructively. That would be my argument. Any guy in prison listening to this because you can, you have at your disposal, well, a lot of people in this world don't have, and that's time. Fuck me, they have some time, you know, not just for reflection.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I have a lot of supporters in prison. I do actually. I think people admire the work that I do having come out of prison from that predicament and go on to try and advocate for prisons, prisoners, but not just people who also represent the families and the victims and everybody and anyone that's involved in this space because of the scars, you know, seeing my physical stars, but there's a lot of kind of emotion or an internal scars that I carry from that time in prison. So it's great to know”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Recognize that the system gets things wrong and people have been released despite the fact they've continuously protested their innocence. Many years after, you know, their convictions or sentence has been served, life sentence in this country can mean anything from 12 years to 30 years. But I was destined to spend the rest of my natural life in prison for crimes I didn't commit.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder. I was sentenced to 15 years for the attempted murder. I was sentenced to 12 years for the attempted murder aggravated robbery. I was sentenced to 12 years for the assault on the guy that was with the guy that died. And another 12 years for the final robbery totaling life plus 56 years, I think, if my calculations are right. But in reality, my sentence was life never to be released. Because when you get a life sentence, if you maintain your innocence and you don't conform to the regime and jump through the hoops of accepting guilt, you don't get released, not when I was locked up in prison. I think things may have changed now because people...”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Put a seed in me again that said, no, I'm not going to let you do this. I'm not going to sit back and suffer this. Why should I? Why should my family? Why should you get away with this? No, I'm not going to allow that to happen. And that became that seed that grew in me in the years that followed.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I just want you to fight everything and everyone for what was happening to me. I'd already put up a lot of resistance, but there was a little chink that made me believe that it just couldn't happen. They couldn't convince me and send me to prison for crimes I didn't commit of such a serious nature. So as well as being volatile at that very moment, I continued to be volatile for the next God knows how many years. And the only person... suffered was me. I was the only person that suffered spending years in isolation, segregation, being beaten physically by prison guards who were not responsible for my wrongful conviction, but they were the authorities keeping me in prison, even though that's their job, but I didn't recognize it at the time. So when I heard that verdict,”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Hard to reflect back, I know that being a young volatile man I was even though I'd learnt some self control and discipline because I practiced yoga in those eighteen months of being banged up in a cell for twenty three hours a day that kept me going and practicing taekwondo and doing incel press ups and all that. So as well as physically preparing my body physically to withstand the onslaught of the trial When I was in that doc, I think I think again, and I talk about those seeds that were planted in me during that interrogation time and what I discovered during the 18 months that I was in this prison within a prison, I think when that verdict came in, as well as exploding and screaming and shouting and my parents, family and supporters were angry.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, things would be successful at the trial. I should never have been charged, let alone held on remand in a prison within a prison in Brixton for 18 months, let alone dragged into the dock to face these charges when everybody involved in the case knew we could not and did not commit these crimes. So yes, I was. Confident when we were in the dock that the twelve men and women that would judge us would conclude that this is a racist, unjust trial and they would be on our side. But they weren't. They convicted us. And I was destined to spend the rest of my life in prison for the crimes I didn't commit.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Who was arrested slightly later than I was African black guy? None of us fitted the descriptions that the victims and the witnesses knew were responsible for these crimes. Yeah, I was charged. I was tried. I stood in the dock when the victims came into court, looked at me and my co defendants who still had these dreadlocks and I'd had these dreadlocks for years, looked at us in the dock and knew, must have known that we were not responsible for the crimes that were perpetrated against them. And yet when they told the jury that the descriptions of the men were too white and one black, their conviction was not as it should have been. And by that I would argue that the police started to undermine their story to secure the convictions that they needed to secure. So when I talk about and you ask the question, was I hopeful at this point that?”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Two white men and a black man. One victim went so far as to say one of the white men had blue eyes and fair hair because they saw that through the Balaclava that they were wearing and they were up close. This is not fleeting sort of CSI kind of identifications where you can say where they may have made a mistake. All three victims have three completely separate crimes, had given descriptions to the police, which were then relayed in the newspapers, the news, the world front page. I came face to face with the kill for kicked gangs. That was the kind of headlines as witnesses saw the men attempting to burn the cars from one of the robberies. The two white men standing by the car terrify me so I called the police. These were witnesses outside of the victims who identified white men. So the fact that myself, brown guy, brown eyes, dreadlocks, my best mate, black guy, brown eyes, dreadlocks, and my third co-defendant.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It wasn't Steve about whether I was hopeful or what I felt it was about the evidence. It was about the information that was available to everybody that was involved in this case. And by that I mean me, my co-defendants and the lawyers that were defending and prosecuting. What was available through the victims of the crimes? just before, and it's important to mention, just before I was arrested and we talked about or I talked about the headlines that were in the newspapers that I was not privy to at the time, there were calls for the police to arrest the two white men and one black man that were responsible for these crimes. And those detailed descriptions of the perpetrators who were involved in the murder and the series of robberies came from the victims of these crimes. Not just one victim at one scene, but the crimes that I just described at three different locations. Each of the victims at those scenes described.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The same three men that were involved in that attack, that hijacking of a car where the car was hijacked by three men, the man was beaten. The same three men then turned up at the property of some wealthy people in Surrey, broke into their home, tied up the occupants, attacked and stabbed one of the occupants. And then they fled that crime in the cars from that property and went to a third scene all in one night, all over the 15th, 16th of December 1988. They then went to another crime scene, broke into the property of two occupants and tied up those occupants and fled with their property. So those were the free crimes. Murder, attempted murder, the stabbing and the aggravated robbery. And then the third aggravated robbery at the final. So, all of those crimes is what I was being accused of being involved in.”
2022-11-10 · The Diary of a CEO · The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of A Murder He Didn’t Commit: Raphael Rowe · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT