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

“So there was a murder where an elderly man was attacked with his boyfriend in a field and during the course of that attack he died of a heart attack having suffered a beating from this gang of three men.”
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
“Followed my friends, followed the environment that I was in, got involved in things that if you'd asked me to do it on my own, I would never have done it because I'd have been too scared to do it. You know, burglar house on my own, you're joking. I couldn't do something like that. But when my mates were doing it, yeah, I'd follow and get involved when we were going in shops together and shoplifting. I'd get involved, asked me to do it on my own and I'd be quite scared to do it. And so for the first time in those interrogations and during the early remand period. I became, I would say, a young man. And that's where the seeds of a young man for me started to grow when I was put where there was no way out, apart from drawing within myself the strength that I needed to get out.”
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 resilience and determination and this ability not to allow. Someone else to dictate who you are, what you're going to become, what you should do, what you shouldn't do, it's as if they were planting seeds within me, my physical body and in my mind. That would grow over the next few months and years that I was wrongfully imprisoned convicted of a murderer and these crimes that I hadn't committed. I didn't realise it at the time, but on reflection I realised in those moments where I'd always been a follower.”
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 I was defending myself and standing up for myself from the very beginning. And I think I think Created a situation where the police themselves were having to make my life harder, more difficult in that interview room because I wasn't, I wouldn't say rollover, but I wasn't accepting what they were telling me I should accept. And that's not me saying that the police were trying to get me to confess for crimes that I didn't commit. It was more about them asserting their authority and telling this little brown boy with dreadlocks who couldn't articulate himself like I can with you right now that he was a murderer, that he was a bad person who'd done bad things and we've got you and we're going to lock you up for the rest of your life. That's what I was experiencing. So it was a terrifying experience and I was scared and I was on my own and I wasn't being supported by the solicitor at the time. But equally at that moment during that 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
“But at the same time I was cocky, I was a teenager, I was kind of almost for the first time in my life standing up for myself. I mean, you know, standing up for myself in a fight is one thing against my peers or people. Standing up against the authority or authorities like police officers is a completely different mindset. But during those interrogations, during those interviews with the police where they started to tell me that I'd killed somebody, tell me that I was involved in these crimes and that people were saying that I was involved in these crimes, that I knew I was not involved in, it allowed me to be a little bit cocky. Cocky is the only way of describing it where I didn't shut up and do a no comment thing. It's like, no, what are you talking about? I didn't do that. No, I wasn't there. That's a lie.”
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 think it's a combination of both. You try to hide my fear. And I think anybody would. When you come from, it goes back to that environment that I grew up in, and my kind of experiences, if you like, with the police and people who are constantly in your face kind of thing. And I think during the interrogation, there was a lot of fear. I was scared.”
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
“around the M25 area there was a huge amount of publicity at the time but I was unaware of that publicity because I wasn't a kid that paid any attention to the news or had any interest in what was going on in the newspapers but at the time you know the story of the M253 gang was on the front page of every national newspaper rewards were being offered for the arrest of these killers these monsters as the media were describing this gang but I was completely oblivious to any of that and only found out during that interrogation that I was being accused of murder not knowing it was anything to do with that particular crime and the serious abgravated robberies”
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 get taken, I was taken in this kind of woo woo woo, all the vans and the police taken to police stations in and around the Surrey, Canterbury, Caterham area. I was interrogated for two or three days, it was, you know, after they'd taken my property, and I was, I met a duty solicitor who came in to one of the police cells that I was held in, who told me that I was being, I'd been arrested for aggravated burglary and other serious offences, but hadn't told me at that point that there was a murder and a series of aggravated robberies involved. So it was only during the interrogation. Three days, three days, so it was on the 22nd of December that I was arrested. So on the 22nd of December, I was interrogated the 23rd of December, the 24th of December, I was charged. So it was only during those interrogations with these police officers that I discovered that I was being accused of a murder and a series of aggravated robberies that were in relation to crimes that had been committed.”
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 they removed him from the van and they called his brother's name, and they removed him from the van. And there was something really strange about that because there was 12, 13 people arrested in that flat at that very time. They were all being bundled into different vans. But at that very moment, I was on my own And I was on my own for the next 12 years from that very moment onwards. And there was something very indicative about. What happened there to isolate me into something that a crime that I didn't commit and it started at that very moment as far as I'm concerned?”
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
“Time also sort of face down on the floor. And as we speak about it, I remember one of my flatmates almost looking up to me with these eyes as the police were kind of knelt on his back and you kind of never forget those images. They're kind of images that stick with you at those very moments. And I was taken out of the flat. And it was at that point that police officers identified themselves, told me I was being arrested for serious offenses. And then I was put in the back of a police van. And it was at that moment on reflection at the time, it was terrifying. It was horrible. It was wrong. And even though I was involved in crime, there was nothing that warranted armed police coming to my property and arresting me. Well, at least I didn't think so anyway. But when I was in the back of that police van at that very moment, and I was in the back of the van with my best friend, Michael Andy's brother. Police officers opened the van and they called Michael's name.”
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 then I was told to come downstairs. I was told to lay on the floor. They put plastic handcuffs on my hands behind my back all the time, sort of shouting and threatening to shoot me if I moved, asking me whether there was anybody else in my flat. I didn't at that point really realize that they were the police because there was no police stop like you do in the movies. It was just guys pointing guns, screaming and shouting. I was disorientated and I was taken out of my flat. And it was only at that point I realized they were police because there were other uniformed officers. These guys weren't uniformed officers, I think they call them the S-17 squad or something, the firearms, special squad or something. So it was only when I got out onto the landing, outside of my flat and was dragged down the stairs that I first realized that they were the police. And at that point, I saw other tenants who were living in that hostel at the 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
“Early hours of the morning, I'm in bed and I'm asleep, and I heard a commotion. Four or five o'clock in the morning and thought it was actually my best mate and his brother who often had arguments and started to walk down the stairs in my boxer shorts teacher and then I saw many in Balaclavas pointing guns at me telling me to stand still not moving really loud voices or they'd shoot me I saw my best friend's brother being taken out of the flat at that moment, handcuffed, going backwards and my flat mate had already been moved out.”
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 think so, and there's a bit of me that also thinks maybe he's scared, maybe he's scared that Coming to me now would be too hard a thing. I mean, it's quite a dilemma, isn't it? Both of us at both ends probably desperately want to rekindle this relationship. And for me to introduce him to his brother and sister, you know, my kids. And I think about it on and off. I do think about it. I do think about how nice that would be, how lovely that would be. And you see other people make those things work. Fear and being scared, I don't know, you know, as tough as I am in the world that I work in when it comes to those kind of emotional feelings. I think it would be quite challenging. It is challenging, hence I've not taken the plunge, I think.”
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
“Of as sad as it is, and as much as I would advocate for any parent. And the funny thing is, I will stand there and say, what are you talking about? Go and meet your son or your daughter. It doesn't matter that you think they don't want to see you. It's your responsibility. I've just not been able to bring myself to do what I would tell other people to do because I'm scared. Scared of maybe being rejected, you know, we all know what that might be like going and meeting this man. And as you say, he will know who I am. He will know what I do and the success that I've made of my life. But for him not to reach out to me, maybe it's because he still doesn't want to know who his dad is.”
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 think I that moment where I walked out of the court and made the decision that if they don't want anything to do with me, I'm not going to force the situation. I'm not going to get involved. It might have been the wrong decision at the time. It might be in the right decision at the time. What I didn't want to do is create a scenario where more pain was caused. And I think forcing he would have been 12 years old at the time, forcing a 12-year-old to have a relationship with a dad that he was told was not a good person, not a nice person, didn't love you, would be the wrong thing to do. And I came to terms with that there and then and accepted that if I was ever going to have a relationship with this son of mine that I'd never really got to know, it would have to be on his terms and not my term. And unfortunately, those terms, as far as I know, have never materialized. I kind of accepted 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
“It was a painful time during the years that I was in prison because I kept a diary every day. I'd write in that diary every other day. I'd write in that diary a message to this son of mine that I'd never met or had a relationship with just so that he knew when I got out that I hadn't completely abandoned him physically, yes, I had no control over that, but in my thoughts he was always there. So I kept this diary in the hope that one day when I got out of prison I could present these diaries and he would be able to see throughout the 12 years that I was in prison that there were lots of mentions of his names and what I was thinking and what I was feeling and the pain I was going through not being able to have a relationship with him. And unfortunately I've not been able to give him those diaries. They're in a locked box at my home at the moment.”
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 think so. I'm sure he does Grew up in the same world that I grew up in southeast London. I don't know what part of the world he's living in right now. I don't know what his life is like, what his relationship's like, whether he has children, whether I'm a grandfather, I have no idea. And I'm scared to even find out, to be honest, there's a bit of me that's really scared to find out that I miss so much. It was a painful”
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
“When I came out of prison, I made an application through the courts against my better judgment to try and get access to my son. And I remember turning up at court on one occasion as the hearings were progressing. And I think this was the kind of key hearing. And as I was walking into the call, you know, the solicitors and the lawyers and the people that were involved in this kind of child custody case was making it clear to me that my son didn't want to see me. His mum didn't want me to have a relationship with him and I just felt at that moment it would be wrong of me to force this situation. So I walked out of the court and left it there and so I've had no contact and I've not attempted since then to make contact. There was this kind of little bit of me that felt in time when he's ready he will come looking for me for us to develop a relationship.”
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've never spoke to him. I've never had the privilege of having a conversation with him apart from when he was still in his nappies being brought up to see me on a visiting table.”
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
“Limited contact over the next two months before I ended up getting arrested and imprisoned, and then that was the end of our relationship. And this is why I say I felt that the mother of my son tried to trap me because during that period, it was, I don't want anybody else to come and visit you if you want to see. There were ultimatums made to me that I would not be able to see my son unless I made certain decisions in my life to cut other people out of my life and that kind of reinforce this idea that I'd already had I was being trapped into a relationship I didn't want to be and I didn't love the woman we had a sexual relationship and that's all it really was and I feel really bad saying that because a son come out of that and you know as a grown man now but I still don't have any relationship with him as a result of my actions not his nothing to do with him and probably not even his mother”
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 at the hospital the day after he was born, so I got there the day after he was born and did what any parent dad would want to do, we just hold their newborn son, daughter, and try, and I'm glad I did actually because I think that was a moment that I bonded with him and recognized this was real as opposed to the months leading up to it of pregnancy. So I was there the day after he was born and then had”
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 that's how self-centred I was at that age. And this was actually when I was. Just before I turn just 20 actually not 18, but just before I turn 20 because it was only. A short period after my son was born two months in fact that I was first arrested and charged with crimes that I didn't commit and ended up in prison. So it was only two months after he was born that my life changed forever.”
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 think I was at that age Quite popular among the group of people that I was hanging around with and had a bit of a reputation. And yeah, I think I think she didn't protect herself and I didn't protect myself. And so when we made love and had sex. Didn't even recognize or realize that she might fall pregnant, but at the time one of the things that came between us was me thinking that the reason she got pregnant was because she wanted to trap me into a relationship where she could have me and no one else could. And that became a bugbear of mine. It just made me feel that this wasn't somebody getting pregnant because we loved each other and we want to bring a child into the world and have a happy ever after. I felt it was a trap that I was being brought into this situation because she wanted 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
“I was also just caught up in my own existence and my own world. I had nothing to offer my son, no guidance, no money, no life, probably love, but I didn't quite understand what love meant at that point to share with this new thing that had come into my life. And so our relationship, mine and my son's mother broke down didn't exist. Was the end of 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
“Yes, another one of my girlfriends who was also a young girl who grew up in the same estate as me never really had any kind of feelings for each other at any point ended up in bed one night. She got pregnant. And gave birth to my son That point our relationship, which didn't exist in the first place became even more of a challenge because I was still a young man myself and all of a sudden I become a dad and I didn't know what a dad was. My dad wasn't as much as I love my dad. He wasn't a role model in how to become a good dad. There was no one sort of saying to me this is a huge responsibility now, son, and you've got to go off and do the right thing, not just for you, but for this young man that you've brought into the world.”
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
“Nothing Absolutely nothing, just the existence that I was in at that very moment. At that point, it was about revenge. It was about finding out who did to me what had just been done to me and how me and my group of friends could go and seek revenge on those individuals, especially my best friend who was my kind of leader, if you like. He was the one who was more angry than anybody. That's all it was about at that very moment. Didn't see beyond 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
“Was a different incident. I was going to visit an ex girlfriend. We'd had a bit of a rocky relationship. I remember going to visit her in Brixton and there were some guys attacking an elderly woman and being the kind of person that I was. And this is why I say there was something in me even then. That cared, and I tried to intervene. And it led to me getting into a fight with these guys. I didn't know they were holding a knife. I didn't have a knife with me at the time. And they beat me. One of them held me down. He stabbed me in my temple and then cut the side of my face open. After the fight, I got up, literally held my cheek together and made my way back to my best friend who took me to a hospital and I had my face stitched up by the hospital.”
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
“Made me become the person that I become and go down the path that I went down. But I do wonder where those people were at the time. Maybe they were just living their lives outside of the councillor state and so they didn't come into where I was because I saw very few people become successful that were in my immediate circle.”
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 wonder whether there were people around, but I wasn't exposed to them in the same way that there are, I mean, okay, social media technology has given us different platforms, but I just wonder where they were when I was in that predicament, my own predicament, my own environment. Where were these people, whether it was the school teachers, as I say, they were not guiding me in the right direction. Yes, their job is to just educate and to impart information. And I should have been sucking up that information like most of my peers, I suppose, because not everybody who grew up in the same environment that I did went on to lead the same life as 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
“You know, dire situations as it did me, or it can lead to a new direction in life because they've learned a lesson, they think, right, I want to go down a different path or they meet someone who gives them an opportunity to go down a different path. So as I think about it now, I just remember there was no alternative.”
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 a decision that we make because there is no alternative because you don't know of any other alternative. And so talking about it now, it makes me heat up inside. Not in an angry way or in a passionate way, but as a reflection of the person and the life that I led and what got me through that as well. I think that's also important because in that moment at that time that I was kicking someone or being kicked or I was fighting with someone I was breaking into a house or shoplifting, it's the only thing I knew. It was the only thing I knew to get money to pay for the things that I wanted. It was the only thing that the people around me knew, you know, rolling a joint and smoking a joint was a bit of fun. We didn't think as you're not supposed to think when you're a teenager of the consequences. And for some people, those consequences can lead to...”
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 had this heat glow through my body right now as we're talking about it because I'm kind of projecting myself back to that moment and the person that I was, the environment that I grew up in, my household, my friendship group, and the lack of guide and guidance and support that young men like me wanted. And I, you know, I'm not a kind of bleeding heart person who sort of says, oh, well, there should have been people there catching us. There should have been people there guiding us. No, there shouldn't have been. But maybe understanding that environment, as you just say, you know, following in that environment is not always a choice that we make because it's the only choice.”
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
“But I will say this even though that world may sound to people like a really violent and disturbed world, that's not who I was. I was caught up in it and I was involved in it. But I know I wasn't that person because it's not the person my parents were bringing up. My sisters, you know, are law-abiding citizens. I was the black sheep of the family. I was doing things because other people were doing things and I was with those other people. That's not me, Steve, blaming other people for what I did and the involvement that I got in. That was free will. It just wasn't who I was. I just didn't recognize it at the 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
“A park I was bundled in the back of the car, I was taken to a park, I was stripped naked, I was beaten black and blue. I thought I was going to die, I thought that was kind of what was going to happen to me. I thought I was going to die when these guys, these big guys were kind of threatening me in the car, what they were going to do to me. They stripped me naked and they beat me black and blue. And then they left me in this park. Now, it was in Peckham, but I didn't know where it was because I was in the back of the car. Couldn't see where I was going, ended up stopping, being dragged into this park's rip naked and beaten. And this is the violent environment that I was now involved in, caught up 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
“The boy who I stepped in the bum, he had an older brother who was quite a known criminal in the area in Peckham, in southeast London, and he and his friends who were older than me and my group of friends came to my flat, kicked off the door. and took me in a car.”
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
“He was, he just had this sense of freedom that I wanted. And I wanted it because, as I say, my dad was quite a, you know, disciplined guy. And so if I wanted to go out, he didn't want me to go out. Now, whether that was because he wanted to be mean to me or whether it was because he was trying to protect me from what I wanted to go and do, which is to go and hang out with guys who had no life, really, but just hanging out smoking weed and chatting up girls. That's what our life evolved around. But in that environment, there were men, young boys, who wanted to challenge us or we wanted to challenge them. And so inevitably, it kind of leads to you carrying a knife. In my case, using a knife and having a knife used against 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
“Attacked. Not by the same people. No. You know, I moved around in a group of guys and there were lots of different groups of guys in lots of different areas. And we were quite, we had quite a reputation as 17, 18, my best friend was a known fighter. He could look after himself. And I was a bit of a follower at this age. I was a bit of a follower. And he had such a freedom in his life. He grew up in the care homes. His dad came to England with my dad, so I knew him from when he was very young. And growing up in the care home system.”
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 lived in a world. That point, and kids live in that world today where carrying a knife was normalized, it was an extra An extension of who you are, an extension of your personality, an extension of your character, but most importantly, I think it was something that we did, and that's me and my friendship group and even the enemy friendship group, if you like, where they were trying to show authority. This is something you fear. You don't just fear the person, but you fear the fact that that person may be carrying a knife and may be willing to use the knife. And I did. I used the knife. I remember being conscious of the fact that using a knife could cause serious harm. That didn't stop me, but it did make me realize that by using that knife, I could harm someone really seriously, hence the reason I stabbed this individual in the buttocks the bum rather than anywhere else. But that full circle came around and I was.”
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 got arrested for burglary when I was 17 and I went to call. I got arrested when I was, I think, 18, maybe 17, 18 for assault. I had an altercation with a mechanic who attacked me with a spanner because I was giving it the big I am, but he was a man, I was a boy and he attacked me, but I managed to wrestle the spanner from him and hit him with the spanner. So I was done for grievous bodily harm and went to court and got a a prison sentence which was over or a young offender's sentence which was overturned. So I spent just a few days in custody but then was out on probation. That was about as serious as it got.”
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
“Maybe I was nicking the chocolate bar because they had at the time the dairy milk chocolate ad where the guy slides through the window and gives these lover a bar of chocolate and that was my temptation. So that's how it manifested itself, mixing with people who were already going down the wrong path, getting together and doing that wrong path together.”
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
“But it was more about, I don't know, you know, coming home from school, going in the shop, knowing that I could do it and get away with it was the driver. I didn't need the chocolate that I got caught. And I remember a police officer bringing me home. And I remember standing in the front room with my dad who was fuming and I knew I was going to get a beating for what I did because that was his reaction to my behavior. And the police officer, I think, was sympathetic in sort of saying, you know, this is not a serious offense, but it is the beginning of something that could become serious. And he was right because I continued to get into trouble with the law, doing nothing more serious than what I just mentioned, burglaries, shoplifting in particular for clothes and things that I wanted that I didn't have, the material things that we didn't have around us in those cancer states that were becoming more and more advertised, you know, advertisements, 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
“I think I started to get in trouble with the law. I started to commit petty crimes, shoplifting, breaking into cars, burglary. Some people might think that burglary is more serious than what it was, but when you're a 16, 17-year-old, it was just a means to an end. So that's how it manifests itself. I started to get into trouble with the law. I remember the first time a police officer brought me home after I got caught Nick and Curly Wirly, chocolate bars from the co-op around the corner from my house. And it wasn't that I needed the curly whirlies because I already had a drawer full of chocolate that I pinched earlier.”
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 kids who are not enjoying school, not taking in the lessons that they're being learned, you know, end up being kicked out of school. So I was kicked out of my second secondary school at the age of 15, 16, and they put me in what they call an intermediate school, which is basically a kind of building where they put all kids that they deemed to be irresponsible or not responsive to the education system. But what you're actually doing is just putting a bunch of kids who are already struggling in life and trying to discover who they are or deal with their problems in one environment and you just breed even more problems.”
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 I just couldn't set or I think it was, you know, I wanted more than what the school were offering me. I don't think the schools in those days could identify what kids like me who grew up on councillor estates needed. Education was one thing, but we needed more. I had, as I've said, troubled home life. Not so much that the schools needed to intervene. I wouldn't argue it was anywhere near as bad as that as it is in some kids' lives today and in the past. But I needed more support and I don't think I got any of that from my school in and that just allowed me to do the things that I shouldn't be doing, which is bunking off a school, not going to my lessons, getting into fights, hanging out with the wrong kids. And those wrong kids would probably say hanging out with me, you know, so it's kind of vice versa. But I think it was just doing the mundane thing.”
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 my first year at my secondary school, an incident happened with a teacher where she called me a thing, you know, you thing. You know, you shouldn't be here kind of thing. And I went home crying and I remember my mum going to the school having an altercation with the teacher and slapping the teacher. And as a result of my mum being protective, now to other people that may seem like she's assaulted a teacher, but the teacher insulted me first verbally, not physically, but verbally. So my mom being the protective mother that she was came to the school and slapped the teacher in her face for calling her son a thing. And I got expelled to the consequences were I got expelled and went to another school, which is now the charter school in Redpost still in Dullwood, but it was then called William Penn, an all-boys school. And I survived that school for just a few years before, you know, my problem surfaced more and more. And I was expelled from that school.”
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 don't think in my household it was anything to do with helping the kids. I think it was something he witnessed in his own household because he was. Growing up I know from what I heard when I went to Jamaica that my dad's dad was violent, that he was abusive towards my dad and his siblings, and no doubt to my dad's mother who died when my dad was very young. So I think it comes from a place where he witnessed that and it was the norm to him and he brought that into his own life and couldn't control 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
“Give him a kiss, and it was a kind of really awkward moment. Not only was his beard itchy and difficult, but I know that he wanted it but didn't want it. So when I went to Jamaica, I went there to see what his life was like. And I learned so much about why he was the man that he was in the house that I grew up in. And it taught me a lot of lessons about why my dad was the way that he was.”
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 think it's a lack of education. I as an adult, Steve, I made a be line to Jamaica with my dad. I needed to understand why he was the man that he was somebody that had never given me a hug, never given me a kiss. During my time in prison, I witnessed things with other families. White families in particular where they'd come up to visit their son and at the end of the visit they'd hug each other. They'd kiss each other and they'd walk off of that visit. And that inmate who I observed getting that affection was in a good mood. I never got any of that, which from my mum, but never from my dad. My dad had a beard. And I remember on one visit on one occasion sort of reaching out for him in the way that I saw other 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
“That wasn't all the time. My day could also be a joy. You know, you could be the life of the party if there was music planning. He was slamming dominoes and he had friends around. We'd love it because we were being exposed to this adult world that seemed exciting and welcoming and very different because there was a mix between the black culture and the white culture. And for me, Despite the negatives in those walls that you talk about, there was also a lot of positives. I think my dad's discipline was born out of the idea that he thought that was the way to get us to do the things we needed to do to improve our lives. He had no ambitions. He had no aspirations or anything like that. And he didn't give us any of those ambitions or aspirations. But I'm sure that he wanted me and my sisters to do better than he 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
“I think there was love, but it wasn't open love as in no cuddles, I love you, kind of conversations, nothing like that took place. My mum oozed care and consideration and love towards me and my three sisters. My dad was very strict. He was also a drinker. I wouldn't say he was an alcoholic, but he liked to consume alcohol. And that made him aggressive. And so in my household, occasionally my dad could be physically abusive towards me and my sisters, as well as my mother. The point where sometimes it got so extreme that we felt we had to flee the home, so it could be quite brutal and he'd take it out on us. So it was a challenging household.”
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