All language subtitles for episode_1_venezuela_james_and_paul_s_story

If they'd have told me what was waiting
there, I wouldn't have believed them.

Every minute of the day, I always knew
someone was watching us.

Look at them, you look at the gun and
you think, shit, what have we done? I

like I'd never seen my mum and dad
again.

I just remember my heart pounding and
thinking, what have we done now?

That wasn't my country, I shouldn't have
been there.

There's blood everywhere, me and Paul,
what the... If you ain't willing to

for your life, then you ain't leaving
it, if you can help.

My life in Leicester was dragging me
down.

For a young lad at that age, it was
boring.

I'd just had enough of waking up, no
opportunities, no money in my pocket. I

wanted to run away from everything.

I was working at my uncle's scrapyard.

I was just really depressed.

I wanted to, um, just get away from it
all, really.

I wanted a challenge.

I wanted some adventure.

I wanted to go and see a bit of the
world.

I've known Paul about 10 years before I
got arrested.

This whole story began in the nightclub.

It's a nightclub. I've been there loads
of times.

We've seen another friend who we've not
seen for a long time in there.

Something stuck out about this guy.

He just caught my eye. I looked at him
and, well, he looks like something

special.

He looked like he'd been away.

He looked healthy in his skin.

He looked well -off. Good clothes, good
shoes, good jewellery. He had a lot of

money.

He said he'd just come back from a hot
country.

He told us on his way, like, every young
lad's dream.

Nice girls, speeches, palm trees.

He said, if you want some of what I've
got, there's the guy over there.

I can put you on to him if you want.

Amy took us over to the Russian guy,
Paul and Jim. They were interested in

some business with us.

You know, they're good people from the
area, seeking custom.

The Russian guy said, have you ever been
abroad?

I'd never been abroad before in my life.

And he said, would you get a package for
me? And I said, what's that then? He

says, well, it's drugs, but I need you
to be honest with me and say that you

could do it for me.

I have proof, you know.

And we said, well, what's in it for us?

If at the peak of the ticket, Venezuela
will give you a four -star hotel and

money while you're on holiday.

If you meet someone, they'll give you
drugs.

Everyone will be paid off at the
airport, so no one will be stopping

If they'll give you $8 ,000 a year.

Hasn't anyone got caught in this? No,
we've got gateways. We can get through.

We know what we're doing.

It's an organisation.

They said everything's paid off.

There's no way you can get caught.

It was offering me an opportunity to go
and make something of myself, even

though it made me dodgy, but I've only
got to do it once.

That's what we were saying, we'd only do
it the one time.

Just the one hit, get the money in.

That'd be it, the start of life ready
for us.

I felt like I was risking nothing.

I'd got nothing.

I've seen that as the head start in
life.

That extra money could have made things
better for my family.

I can do this.

That's what I thought. I thought, I can
get away with this.

We was gullible children, as far as I'm
concerned. Gullible kid.

This guy wanted to do it quick.

He wanted to get this moving as quick as
possible. Within a week, everything was

sorted.

In the morning, there's a knock at the
door, and it's Jamie.

Get your bags, lads, come on, we've got
to go to the airport.

And we knew at that time that's it.

We looked at each other as we should
say, we've got to do it now.

In the car, I remember it being cold,
raining, horrible on the motorway.

I just remember it raining on the
dashboard thinking, get out of this

weather, I'm going to have a break from
all this.

I was, like, on the start of a holiday.

We were going to go and enjoy ourselves.

And I just remember looking up at the
sky, being in the clouds.

You'd see the sun, like, just beaming in
through the window.

It was beautiful.

It was a crazy view.

As we touched down, my heart just got
like, whoa, I'm in a different country

now.

As soon as you walk out of the airport,
the heat just went.

I couldn't breathe because it was a
changing climate and I wasn't ready for

All I can remember was just the heat was
intense.

It took my breath away.

Me and Paul stuck out like sore thumbs.

Everything looked clean on us.

It was all brand new.

They had toes sticking out of their
shoes. It was just a different world

altogether.

There are the palm trees. They're there,
mate. They're real.

I've never seen a palm tree in my life
and I'm looking at these palm trees.

Yeah.

It wasn't expensive.

I would tell this guy I'd spend money on
it. It was all professional.

Very nice place. Four star.

Balcony. Everything.

Marble floors and the big pillars and
the three, four, five floors upwards.

And clear blue water in the swimming
pool.

We felt comfortable with it. We thought,
this man's put good money into this.

It's not a backstreet fit. Still looking
positive.

I felt free.

I felt this is my life starting. This is
what I make of it.

That's the first sense of freedom I ever
got.

If they'd have told me what was waiting
ahead, I wouldn't have believed them.

Never in a million years I would not
have believed what was waiting ahead.

The first contact we got was the second
day of being at the hotel.

We got the phone call that he was
outside the hotel.

Paul was scared like I was.

We knew we had to go ahead with it.

He was supposed to be in my head from
now on.

We're going to the back of the jeep, and
the jeep just pulled off.

What you can see is these dark things in
the back of this van, and these guns.

I'd never seen someone carrying a gun
before.

You just look at them, and you look at
the gun, and you think, shit, this is

serious.

This guy's lifting my arm up, and I'm
thinking, what's he doing? And he's

to measure my... Inside measurement,
there.

They said, we need to measure your chest
width, hip width, and the length of

your chest to the bottom of your
stomach.

And we said, what's that for? And he
said, well, you need a bulletproof

to put stuff in.

And we said, well, won't you see that?

And he said, no, no, you're OK. You wear
a shirt, you won't see it.

They were saying that they're going to
ring us soon, take us to their

put drugs on us, and take us to the
airport.

And that's when we knew.

This is it.

That's the day we're going to be waiting
for.

And that's when me and Paul virtually
come to the conclusion that we've just

to enjoy ourselves with what we've got
now and get on with it.

Because they gave us a lot of spending
money, it was $2 ,000 they gave us. We

were just always doing something.

I was just enjoying my holiday.

We did shopping. We went on the beach,
swimming in the sea, surfing.

We went on boats.

We were just, like, partying right from
the word go.

Drinking in the morning.

We used to go down to the restaurants,
ordering all this crab and exotic

seafood.

We were sitting there with girls.

Being with the girls and clubbing.

It wasn't like a load of young lads
spilling beer over each other and things

like that.

The women stood there with champagne
glasses and nice sparkly dresses.

It was a different scene altogether.

Wherever we went, we were whistled at
and shouted at and loved by everyone.

Everyone was like, we're film stars.

We often thought about getting out of
the deal, but we weren't brave enough to

do that. We knew we couldn't just get
out of it without anyone having to pay

what we'd already started.

We was offered cocaine by a Dutch guy,
Jimmy.

I'd smoked marijuana before, but never
cocaine.

I've never tried coke before.

Didn't even know how much to take of
this stuff.

You know, I just started going mad on
it.

He's cutting it off and cutting it off
and making more lines and more lines.

And I'm just... I've just, must have
just took too much.

I could feel it racing and everything
was just going black.

He started having a seizure where his
heart was pumping really fast.

He couldn't breathe and he was sweating
and going white.

I was slapping him and trying to wake
him up. And I could see again and I get

blurred vision.

Splashing water. Come on, Paul, what's
up?

I can feel my chest tightening.

When I started to panic, I thought I was
going to die.

It scared me. I thought I was going to
lose him.

In the end, I thought, I've got to get
you down to the hospital.

It's, like, really, really hot.

My head is now pounding.

I could feel my heartbeat in my head.

I just picked him up and threw him in
the back of the taxi.

Told the taxi driver, get to an
hospital.

God, I'm going to die, I'm going to die.
Where's this shit? What have I done?

I thought he was going to die.

I'm going to die.

I'm panicking, I'm panicking.

And I carried him into the hospital and
got a doctor to come.

They gave me an injection to calm me
down.

I'm in this hospital thinking, shit,
what have I done?

We slowed the holiday right down after
that attack. It just made me think, no,

don't want to be doing this, because
it's nearly killed my friend.

I never thought that if I brought this
drug into the country that I could be

killing people or...

that I could be causing any damage to
any families or anything.

It was like a countdown, you know.

God, it's happening now, it's happening.

I just remember being in the hotel.

You can hear life on the street, but
inside you know you're going to be doing

something dangerous.

I got myself into something that I
couldn't get myself out of and I started

regret every moment of it.

I started to reminisce back to
Leicester,

what I'd left behind. Maybe it weren't
so bad in the first place.

I spoke to my mother.

I felt like a little boy. I felt like I
was trapped.

You've done it all yourself, so you've
got to carry on with it all yourself.

You've got to see it through yourself.

No -one's going to help you here.

You've got to do it.

The night before, it was just me and
Paul. We stayed in.

We was tossing and turning most of the
night.

I was sweating, restlessness, couldn't
get to sleep, thinking, God, what have I

done? I've got to do it now. There's no
looking back. This is it. And when I did

finally go to sleep, it was only for,
like, a couple of hours, and I was awake

again.

I was told to meet him outside.

We booked out the hotel, and, yeah,
there they were.

I remember leaving the beach behind and
driving back to Caracas.

It was, like, hectic everywhere.

In the mountains, you can see these
shanty houses.

It was just horrendous. I'd not seen
that in my life, and I thought, Christ.

I felt like I'd entered a third -world
country.

That wasn't my country.

I shouldn't have been there.

They took us to this apartment, and the
apartment just looked dingy.

Like nothing that they expected.

I remember them eating and thinking, you
know, what are you eating?

The glamour associated with pop stars,
you associate that with cocaine.

Then you look at the apartment, there
was no glamour there.

It was the most scariest part of my
life.

that I've ever experienced.

I didn't understand what they were
talking about. I didn't understand what

had in mind. I didn't understand what
their next moves were.

We were actually puppets.

There's no way you could ever argue with
them kind of people.

You've just got to do what they say.

Unless you wanted that bullet in your
head, you couldn't do anything.

I was just there to do what I'd got to
do and then go.

Come away to get out of the apartment, I
just remember feeling like, shit, what

do I do?

Two guys called me into the room and I
stood there and I had to take my shirt

off.

He produced a vest.

I just remember it being really, really
heavy and when he put it on my back, it

was like... And I stood with my arms out
and they put the jacket on me.

And I felt the weight pull on my
shoulders.

I knew there was far more in the jacket
than what the Russian guy had sent us to

collect.

They pulled the cords up the top here
and sewn the shoulders and they made it

it was tight around your stomach.

There was no way that I could have took
this vest off myself.

I remember thinking, this is where you
come to get kitted up.

I remember thinking, people have been
here before me.

But I knew now.

I was going to see it for myself.

I just looked at myself in the mirror
and I thought to myself, God, what have

got myself into?

But it's already on me now. They've
sewed it up to pay for my holiday, to

for everything else.

It's just like walking into a brick
wall.

And there's no... It's just one way
forward now. There is no turning back.

That's it. You're there.

We waited till the lady gave the nod.

You OK?

Go.

And then they walked her down to the
taxi, paid the guy and walked off. And

was the last time we've seen them.

It feels like a straitjacket to be
honest with you.

You can't get out of it and it's just
strapped to your... You can feel the

packages digging into the side of your
ribs and you just want to get it off you

as fast as you can.

I remember Jim just turned around and
said to me, this just stinks.

I was scared that people would smell it
on us. I was scared that people were

watching as we went to the airport. I
was paranoid completely.

We stopped talking because we didn't
know if the cab driver was in on it.

If the taxi driver's involved, then we
do make a wise move.

We will get shot.

Get outside the airport and you'll see
all the police around you and all the

National Guard in your feet.

Shit.

I was scared, but I couldn't show that I
was scared, so I was trying to hide it.

I just remember my heart pounding and
just feeling scared, thinking, what am I

going to do now?

We walked to the main entrance to the
airport.

I just remember I wanted to stay well
away from as many police as I could.

I felt like the jackets were obvious,
not to see but to feel.

If you bumped into someone, you'd know
that there's something there.

I've been still in the queue for about
10, 15 minutes.

This guy come up to us, and he's coming,
like, quite close to me, this guy, and

I'm thinking, I don't want him to come
close to me, cos if he touches this,

going to know straight away what's on
me, and that's it.

Game's over.

He's like, come on, I'll give you an
hand. And I've, like, shouted at the

no, I've told you, I'm OK, thank you.

He's like, OK then, OK then, lefties.

Jim's, like, looked at me, he didn't
need that.

I've turned around to go through the
immigration, and I can remember seeing

guy standing there with his shirt tied.

I just remember thinking, once I'm past
him, I've done it.

I've had my money.

Corner of my eye, I can see the card at
the side of him, and there's this dog

there. My heart starts racing.

I try not to draw attention, looking
down. I can see this dog out the corner

my eye. I'm looking, I'm thinking, God,
this is it now.

The Lord had reassured me that the
airport's paid off. You'll be all right,

don't worry.

Now I'm going to see for myself.

Have they paid it off or haven't they?

The dogs were just like, not even
interested in me. I mean, what kind of

is this on me?

This is when I was convinced, yeah,
these people have been paid off.

The bloke was speaking to you like he
knew me.

Literally speaking to me, you're all
right, my friend. Yeah, yeah, no

I'm all right.

That's, that's peace. That was easy.

Went sort of straight through.

I sat down thinking, I've done it.

I thought I've got through the gateway.

And I'm sitting there looking at Paul
thinking, yeah, we've done it, mate.

We've done it.

That's it.

Well, that come through and I just fell
asleep, dozed off on Jim's shoulder.

I just sat there waiting.

And you don't want to be sitting there
waiting. You just want to get on your

plane and get over and done with.

And that's when paranoia kicks in.

We're just sitting there normally.

Everyone's looking at me and Paul.

There's two men, and they're looking at
us. I thought they knew straight away

that we had stuff on us.

Paul fell asleep and landed on my
shoulder, like, and I pushed him to say,

people don't look right.

He's getting more and more agitated,
more and more. No, no, no, no, I don't

it, I don't like it. I'm going, keep
your mouth shut.

Calm down, chill out.

Don't pay any attention to yourselves,
mate.

I must have been kidding myself.

Sat there then, looking.

I knew they was looking at me.

I thought, come on, let's go and throw
this stuff away. Come on, let's go to

toilet and ditch it.

I couldn't just go to the toilet and
lock that off. It just slowed on me

How am I going to get that off?

You can see I'm getting agitated and
it's making me feel paranoid as well

I'm getting more nervous when you're
sitting there like thinking, shit, shit,

they're looking at us. They're looking
at us.

They shot over the loudspeaker. Would
you please board such and such a flight

bound for England?

Turned down the tunnel, see these people
in front of me, and I just remember,

like, looking a bit further past me, and
then these two guys that had been

looking at us.

I had this time to just look to you and
I went, shit.

The tunnel just seemed like it was
getting longer and longer.

I just focused on getting past that man.

Without him searching me.

Just get on that plane and get past him.

He was virtually staring at us to go to
him.

That's how it felt.

Like he knew you had the stuff.

We got right next to the door.

He told me to lift my arms. I lifted my
arms like this, and he patted me on the

side. And that's when I thought to
myself,

Shit. And this guy just looked at me and
he just shook his head.

And I thought, no way.

The world has come tumbling down, I
thought.

What have I always gone and done?

They just took me and Jim to this really
small room.

They were being loud and threatening.

It was quite scary to not know what
they're saying.

You just didn't know what was going on.

That's when you started to think, we're
not getting out of here now, are we?

I've still got this bulletproof vest on,
man. I'm thinking, please get this off

me now.

I've had enough.

The guy's come up behind me, he's got
his pen life, he's trying to get it off.

I just remember just taking this jacket
off and I just remember hearing the thud

as this jacket hit the table.

That's when I knew there was a lot of
cocaine in there.

As they pulled them apart, I was scared.

I was like, what have I done?

I just remember thinking, my world is
going to come to an end.

I ain't never going to get out of this
shit.

This is it now.

I felt a deep loss.

I felt like I wouldn't ever get out of
the country ever again. I'd never see my

mum and dad again.

And I... That's it, I blew it.

We were both terrified at that time.

Both absolutely terrified. We thought we
were going to die.

They flagged a taxi down outside the
airport.

And we got in the taxi.

It seemed surreal.

All that drugs confiscated off of me.

Just these two guys were just going to
put us in a taxi and just take us, like,

in the middle of nowhere.

When I pulled up outside the Vega police
station and I just looked up at this

big building, five storeys, and every
window's got bars on it,

I thought, they're not just going to
take me to a prison, surely, straight

I feared for my life when we arrived
because we could hear a load of people

shouting in the prison.

You could hear knives hitting bars. You
could just hear that there was uproar

going on.

When the police was questioned, they was
looking as much as to say, you boys are

going to meet your nightmare in a
minute.

Up those stairs is your nightmare.

We walked up the stairs, police station
was smoking. All the walls smelled.

We've seen three cages.

And they're all hanging out of the cages
going, hey, green guy, green guy, and

all this, and we're like, whoa.

I remember we had a couple of fingers
missing, teeth in a mess.

So I just thought, like, something out
of this world.

They're, like, pulling on a jean
straight away, pulling on its clothes.

I've got five people standing around, it
was nice.

And this guy came and he went, you give
them your jacket and your shoes, as

they'll kill you.

I just wanted to burst out crying, but I
couldn't. I couldn't cry. I didn't want

them to see me cry. I thought, if I can
let them see me cry, that's it from day

one. I've got to put a face on now.

7 ,000 miles away from home.

My mum's not there to help me.

The guards came to us, and it was the
first bit of light we'd seen for four

days.

He opened the door, and his eyes were
stopped.

That's how bad it was.

They took us to this room.

The next thing you know, there's a
slight film crew everywhere.

James Miles and Paul Loseby were
arrested at Caracas Airport with 22

cocaine strapped to their chest.

I've looked at Jim, and I just don't
know where to put my face, and I'm

thinking, my mum's going to see this.

arrested as they were about to board a
flight to London.

Their explanation is that drugs barons
forced them into it. This man put a gun

to our head. My mum was going to shoot
me. We haven't done nothing.

You understand?

All I'm here for is a holiday.

All my family, everybody I know, they're
going to see this.

And I can't do nothing about it.

I got to speak to my parents a week and
a half after being captured at the

airport.

My mum, she said that she loves me and
whatever I do, it don't matter.

I'll always be a son.

And that was the first time I cried
after I spoke to my mum.

I come back and cried.

I said to my mum, sorry, I didn't know
what I'd done.

I didn't know what I'd done there.

I don't know why I left him, I don't
know why I left my mum, I don't know why

left her.

I made her sorry for what I was doing.

I don't think I could have apologised. I
couldn't have found words to say

anything. I don't know.

I'm sorry.

There's an atmosphere in the play, and
you can cut that atmosphere with a

When you look at their eyes, they've got
no...

No sense of nothing behind him.

I heard someone getting raped.

I heard somebody getting raped.

Knowing that you can't do nothing for
him and he can't do nothing for himself.

I don't know, cos he probably got a gun.

The back of his head or in his mouth.

That was the worst.

For me and Paul.

Cos we could hear it, but we couldn't do
anything about it.

That was bad.

You are.

You wait to end.

There's nothing you can do. There was
someone coming through that door any

of night.

You never know if there was going to be
armed or not armed or what frame of mind

there was going to be in.

Today, in a dramatic and astonishing
turn of events, James and Paul were

sentenced to four years for possession
of drugs.

but not traffic it.

After being in La Vega for a year and a
half, I knew we wasn't getting out and I

knew that no -one could do anything, not
even lawyers, our money wasn't doing

anything. We were stopped.

We managed to get a camera on.

So Jim was familiar and basically we
just bribed the policeman to take the

camera in there.

I see that that person in that video
needs help.

To look at myself like that and see
myself in that state, that's not me.

It's like a possession.

You see the dark side of yourself.

At times you just fade off into that
just to get your bi things in. It was

I don't think I'll ever see my mum and
dad again.

The English government thought it was
protecting us, but me and Paul knew we

more at danger there than we were at
maximum security prison.

I've been warned about it that many
times, oh, you don't want to go to the

prisons. They kill each other and you
can buy grenades in there and you can

guns.

You don't know whether to believe it
when you're in a police station, but yet

felt like I was rotting away in there.

I'd rather go down fighting and in
danger than just rotting away in this.

little place.

He just took us out of the police
station, threw us in the back of his

Guard jeep.

You can just see, like a perimeter,
fences, guards standing in these

I think, God, that's something you see
in a film.

Guards are there to guard the perimeter.
The prisoners themselves run the

prison.

Walking in there, seeing the people
disfigured, limbs missing, and after

seeing all the guns and all the grenades
that went with it.

It was ten times worse than any hell.

I've seen somebody that's been in the
police station we've met.

He said, remember what it was like in
the police station? I said, yeah. He

well, get out of your head.

It's because it ain't like it here,
mate.

She said, hey, you fought for your life.
If you ain't willing to fight for your

life, then you ain't leaving here. This
is hell.

It was very scary because it was a whole
big scare of everything.

And we were only two English lads in
there.

It was the first week of his being
there.

Our cellmate said, have you ever seen
anyone die?

We said, no. He said, well, someone's
gone in today.

I stood there, chatting away, waiting
for this food.

All of a sudden, there's a bang.

Like a ringing in me ear, and I just
turned around and just looked at this

and he's just, like, gone on the floor.
He's been shot in the head, and all his

brain's hanging out.

There's blood everywhere.

And me and Paul just walked there.

Couldn't believe it.

I'd been there two days and someone's
just been shot in front of me already.

brain's hanging out all over the floor.

And after that, it was just a normal
thing to be doing in prison to them.

Three people a week, four people a week,
five people a week.

Just getting killed.

It's all about power, possession.

Who's got the most drugs?

Who's got the most armour?

Who's got the most bullets? Who's got
the most grenades?

Laugh doesn't mean nothing. It means a
pound at the bullet cost.

And the man who's got the guts to pull
the trigger.

You feel like you're ducking and diving
for your life every day.

You'd lay there at night and think,
well, tomorrow, will I get through

Or will I get through this week?

Or will I see my mum and dad again?

You're now living their society, their
world, their rules and their laws

where there is no moles.

Moles don't exist.

You just get to the stage where you just
become one of them, you just live like

them, you live with them, you do
everything that they do just to survive.

I'd been there for four years. One day
the embassy came to give us some money

and letters from his family.

It comes round to let people know how
the sentences and the cases are getting

on. And me and Jim's name was the first
to be called out. We thought it was

coming up for a benefit.

Ready to go free.

Jackie from the embassy, she was there
and she said, the prosecutor, she's not

happy with your appeal.

It looks like you're looking at a ten
-year sentence.

And me and Paul were just devastated.

You just feel like exploding.

Literally like kicking the gates
straight off.

I just wanted to shoot every human in
that room.

I just thought, I'm never getting out of
this hellhole.

That was the breaking point. I thought,
the English Embassy just gave me ten

years. We'll sod the English, I'll be
Venezuelan.

I might as well say I'm Venezuelan now.

I know I act like a Venezuelan. I live
like a Venezuelan.

Three lads just walked up to me with a
gun and said, do you want to hang around

with us? And I said, what do you do? He
said, we play Russian roulette with the

guns and we shoot people and we mess
about.

I said, all right, come on then, let's
go and do it. And one day they gave me

this 9mm and I just thought I'd walk
around the prison with it and show it

everyone.

I'll show everyone that I've got a gun
and that I want to use it.

That's the life I want to live.

You see, he wants to cry, but he can't.

What's the matter? I'm going to show
them.

You going to show them, kid? I'm going
to show them you ain't messing around

with me. I've had enough.

If anybody's going to come and try and
mess around, I'm going to show them

they're going to get it.

And he just became one of them, playing
with the roulette with guns.

I mean, what kind of normal person does
things like that?

The lads wanted to play Russian roulette
one day. They just said, have you ever

played it? I said, not really, no.

So the lads span it.

And I've got a click.

Boy, it's empty.

And he's done his turn.

Third man's done his.

And there was one lad who weren't even
in the gang.

And one of the guys walked up to him
like that.

They were lucky it didn't go up.

But the guy was like, whoa.

To see a friend do something like that
and play around with their own life, I

knew that he must have been at some
serious stage.

As if to say, well, you know what?

Couldn't really give a fuck.

I rang my mum and dad up and said, I
don't ever want to see you ever again.

Imagine how that must have been for
them.

No self -esteem.

Gone.

No more need to go on in life.

Wanted to end it.

What are you doing? What am I going to
do if you're not here with me?

What am I going to do if you go away?

I just wanted to see my mum and dad and
my family so bad that I wasn't going to

be willing to be taking my own life.

I would have done anything in my means
to get back home and see my family and

friends.

Anything.

It was on Saturday and we heard everyone
shouting, here's the judge, here's the

judge.

The judge had come into the actual
prison to release prisoners from prison

and then.

So we grabbed all the paperwork.

Me and Jim had just thought we'd try a
look. So we just asked if we could see

this judge.

He said, you've got all your
credentials, you've got everything you

Yeah, we're going to let you go free.

and me and Paul were just gobsmacked.

Then she says, right, you can go free,
but you have to find a job and then go

work every day. In the week, you have to
go back to the prison every night up

until 2007.

As soon as I was let free, I was
thinking about the escape.

There was no way I was going to stay
there after I'd just done five years.

I knew that I wasn't going to stay in
that country any longer.

I couldn't wait to go.

In their law, it stated that anybody in
their country that has a form of

identification, my ID, was a passport.

As soon as the embassy gave us our
passports back, we could see that we

make the escape.

If we went together, that would be the
craziest thing we could have done

we'd come into the country together, so
we both planned that we'd leave

separate.

So we arranged that Jim would go through
the Venezuelan port and I'd go through

to Colombia.

It was the first time in four years that
I'd been separated from Jim.

It's all strange, just my friends go the
other way.

I got no money or nothing.

I got a load of clothes off of a friend.
I took the clothes and I sold them all.

That's what I got my bus fare to
Colombia with.

Got on a coach to Colombia.

That's it now, I'm leaving Venezuela for
good. I ain't coming back.

I decided to go on the run for a week
until my father came.

He was going to give me money to buy a
ticket so I could get out of the

His flight got cancelled and he came the
week after, so I had to stay on the run

for another week until my father came.

I stayed right underneath the police
station because they don't look where

obvious. They were lucky for me and they
caught father.

When I got to the Colombian border, I
should have gone through the

but I didn't want to bring any tension
to myself.

Everyone's being checked.

If they'd have caught me, they would
have sent me back to prison for six

That was the risk I took to get back to
my country.

Some guy on the road, he didn't drive,
he just drove straight past.

He didn't even pull him down, didn't say
nothing to him, did him nothing.

And on the other side, I rang my mum.

I said, look, I've done it, Mum.

In Columbia, Mum.

I said, I need you to settle some money.

I met my dad at the airport when I
collected money up in there.

My dad left that night and he said to
me, just ring me in the morning and make

sure you get a ticket to Columbia.

I said, I will.

When I got to the Western Union in
Columbia, it was something like £1 ,800

mum would send over.

And £1 ,800 in Colombian pesos is
like...

What?

From there, direct to a travel agent.
This is all in the same day.

Flight to England, please.

Off I went to the airport.

That was more terrifying than when I sat
there with the drugs.

If I'd have been spotted by a policeman
at the airport, I think I would have

tried to kill the policeman at the time
or him kill me.

Because there's no way I would have gone
back to prison.

I thought, oh, my God, I've got to go
through this again.

And it's like, this airport is, like,
five times as big and, like, it's

Columbia, it's Bogota.

Their immigration has got to be tight.

Put some more courage up.

Went straight through the immigration,
didn't even look at me, didn't even bat

an eyelid.

And I knew then, once I'd passed that
immigration, I was sat down in that

departure lounge.

It's over.

It's over.

I'm coming home.

I got off the plane in Colombia.

I've walked down, and I've just seen
this hand that I recognised, and I

I know that hand.

And as I've turned my body around to see
who it is, there's Paul sitting there,

and we've both looked at each other and
gone, we've done it, mate, we're free,

we're going home.

And we just hugged each other and said,
yeah, we're going home.

That's it.

It's all over.

And there it was, there was my life at
the end of the tunnel.

That plane waiting for me to stand on it
and go home.

Yeah, my nightmare is just finished. I'm
going home to my mum.

I don't feel guilty anymore because I've
come back.

I've been back in England six years now
and I've made amends.

And like everybody else, we all do
wrong.

Just try and make up for it and do
better.

Make your parents proud of you and the
people that love you are proud of you

because they're the ones that count at
the end of the day.

For me now, focus on my son and just
give him the best in life.

That's my future.

I want to be a person that's there for
his son, works for his son, secures his

son. Not someone who's not there for his
son, who's in prison, showing his son

the wrong sides.

I'm just there to get on with my life
now.

Just... move forward.

Todo pa 'lante.

Everything forward.

Those bloody vampires are everywhere.

Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise star in
Interview with the Vampire, next on 5.