In 1983 I was the managing director of a limited company Videx Ltd, situated in Wimbledon, Surrey which was also a good catchments area for the successful film-making company we were, selling our own productions. I was also a member of BAFTA and the Institute of Directors.

Our company had just returned from the Mipcom Exhibition in Cannes, France with orders worth several million. I had received hostile publicity in the British press (Robin Stringer / Telegraph) saying that I had received a two thousand pound grant from the taxpayer under false pretences. Indeed after a successful British Trade mission all exhibitors at Cannes Mipcom were refunded half the fee of exhibiting.
Thatcher was in power and I was bringing gold back! Pornography was legal everywhere else in Europe except this country or Ireland.
I had loads of cash to spend on productions and I indulged myself making films like Lady Victoria's Training starring posh sexual revolutionary Tuppy Owens. The establishment hated it, satire that is, about the rich and powerful especially the Hooray Henrys. Most people didn't see the satire because they were too busy looking at the sex. It was what the workers always thought that the rich got up to anyway! Anyway Lord Harewood President of the BBFC, the Queen's cousin certainly did, and he refused to certificate R18 four soft core films The Officer's Ladies (vol 1-4). They are still lying as evidence that I speak the truth in the BBFC's vaults in and around Soho. They were cut versions of the hardcore Rich & Randy series. My idea was to get certificates and then sell the hardcore versions.

Some of the characters in the Rich & Randy series spoke with public school accents and indeed they were the genuine article, people like Bill Wright (Frank Thring) and Kent Boulton, who once stood as the labour MP for the Isle of Wight.
Bill Wright, then acting in Chekov's Cherry Tree, wore a colonel of the guard’s full dress uniform. He spouted a long monologue from Henry 1V (I think it was) quoting "and if you don't wear your crown I will tear it down." There was a scene were Tuppy Owens tramples all over the colonel before urinating in his mouth. Lord Harewood saw the symbolism of it all he knew that I was an artist. But instead of allowing I my freedom of expression the establishment chose to take me out.
I met the Slug in a disused pub in Brewer St Soho. He wanted all my films in his shops. It was “an offer I could not refuse,” he told me. He was of small stature and flanked by several hard looking guys. I said “ I’m refusing
your offer” and walked out. Bill Wright, (later becoming Frank Thring film director marketing director of Videx Ltd, told me that the Slug had paid “a member of the public” to make a complaint against one of my titles Sex Slave 1982. This corrupt individual complained to the OPS that he had ordered a video Sex Slave from Videx Ltd by mail-order and had been shocked and disgusted by its contents! The ad in a top shelf video magazine had promised “money back guarantee if not uncensored hardcore.” This was in an era where the Slug was making millions by ripping off members of the public with ads that blatantly contravened the Trade Descriptions Act.

My house in Surrey was raided by the porn squad in 1982. After the raid I was drawn aside by two detectives and blatantly asked for cash. I told them to fuck off. I had paid before and received a life sentence for killing a hit man in the Sixties. I refused saying "it will be legalised soon" and was told, "it will never be legalised you mug because there is too much money in it" As OPS officers drove angrily away I was full of trepidation. My liberty was in serious jeopardy again.

MURDER
About the murder conviction in 1969: I killed a well known Soho thug Gerald Hawley after he attacked me in my own home and threatened to kill my wife and children. I have no doubt that he would have killed. After a big campaign about me being an evil pornographer the News of the World and a fantastic story about me selling the secrets of the Vulcan V Bombers (I had an RAF pilot and his wife in a film) I was convicted. I was a company director of a small independent film company and he was a notorious Soho gangster with convictions for violence. The truth was never heard at the trial because of corruption at high levels. I was paying the head of the porn squad at the time. Because of the above my conviction remains unsafe and unsatisfactory.
The Old Grey Fox, as he liked to be known, Detective Inspector Albert Wickstead the arresting officer pleaded with me to inform on corrupt porn squad officers at Scotland Yard but I stayed silent.

Videx 1980s

After the 1981 raid on my home raid equipment shooting rig, lights etc worth £20,000 were loaded up into a police van and driven away on the pretext of doing tests. I knew that it was an effort to take me out without a trial.
The next day I purchased the latest U-matic High Band shooting equipment. (I was the first film-maker to originate feature films on video.) The detective inspector had asked me to keep a low profile but I knew that as my liberty was not going to last much longer I might as well go out with a bang. I took as much advertising as I could in all the video magazines. The response was huge and Videx went from strength to strength. One day we had a phone call from Rumbelows soon after that the British Videogram Association (BVA) gave its members a ten per cent discount on Videx videos. Soon more trade orders were coming in. At the time before the VRA 1984 video was not an article under the OPA 1969 and considered to be a domestic viewing medium free from censorship. We had Roy Jenkins’s Obscene Publications Acts to hold back "the tide of filth", predicted by the censorship groups. However one day video was brought under the Obscene Publications Act.
It was a put up job: A Soho sex shop owner (working for the Slug) told reporters after being acquitted under the obscenity laws: "If this filth were on film rather than video I would go to prison. Stupid innit" The Soho masonry wanted to keep their little earner and so did those who they were paying off. Corruption reached the highest levels and the law was changed. Video became illegal despite he recommendations of the Williams Committee and the rest of the European Community (except for Ireland) abolishing censorship of porno for adults. I still carried on with Videx Ltd, paying my taxes and so on. But I was now clearly breaking the law in producing films containing explicit sexual imagery.
A year after the raid on my Surrey home I was still at liberty. I had been told by Bill Wright that the raid on my home had been engineered by the Slug and he had paid someone to make a complaint about one of my films acting as a member of the public. My ads said "hardcore guarantee" but the complainer said that he had been shocked and horrified by what he saw in the film Sexslave! The newspapers had been giving me a lot of good publicity and the Slug bad. However the fear of another OPS raid haunted me. I had moved into another house now in Banstead a beautiful part of Surrey with the Downs at the end of my garden. It had six bedrooms and I was excited at the prospect of using it, and the Surrey Downs as a location.

There was a letter from David Offenbach the company solicitor in the mail. I kept the appointment in Bond Street. He was on the phone to someone in the Home Office. It seemed all they wanted me to do was to take the "homo stuff" off the market.
"You are a rich young man and you can continue just as before" his words echoed in my head.
How did I come to make What a Gay Day and Dial a Guy anyway? I remember Paula Meadows suggesting it to me. I asked why. She said, "Solidarity with the Gay Liberation Front" and I agreed. It was so romantic!
At the Videx Office in Wimbledon picked up the phone a started to increase my advertising. Since starting to sell the gay films business expanded by 40% over night. I now lived in fear of the raid that was sure to come. My films became more satiric, anarchic and extreme. The Colonel, one of the main characters in the Rich and Randy series, started to whip the call girls he was hiring to come to his Mayfair apartment. SM it seemed was very controversial as well. The Colonel tries to persuade his gay son to have "proper sex" in one of the scenes. A question was asked in parliament. "Who is this Freeman?"
The publicity was good and the cash was rolling into the Videx coffers. Many artists had been accused of being pornographers. What was wrong with pornography anyway? But I knew that the state and religious groups hated it and that they were very powerful, if corrupt. I had made up my mind to fight censorship when studying for a degree in Fine Arts in prison.
I started to be more provocative and produced a Videx Video Show which among SM scenes, a nude beauty contest and a nude dancer Carla was a comedy called Bent Coppers. If you saw it then you would have to admit that I provoked the state and Whitehouse Brigade. Soon after that the porn squad smashed their way into the Videx Offices with a warrant under the Obscene Publications Act. I was charged as the managing Director of Videx Ltd, that I produced an obscene film called the Videx Video Show.
The magistrate refused me bail. Before leaving for Wormwood Scrubs I asked David Offenbach what the crowd of gangly, embarrassed, middle class males were doing at the back of the court. He said that they were all charged with indecently assaulting young girls at the Wimbledon tennis tournaments. Evidently they had a special groper squad down there! In spite of my predicament I knew that the gods were smiling on me. Or was it at me?
Lindsay Honey asked why I did not just get on with making horny films. He used to take the piss out of me for talking about "the enemy". But I just referred him to a letter I had written in the Guardian about the Beast of Censorship.
They were putting me on trial now for the films involved in the first raid in 1981. The jury was geriatric and looking at me as if I was the devil incarnate. I was guilty already. I pleaded with my counsel that this was all bent. He smiled and nodded his head. I knew the two gay films would be there. The judge read out a letter from Sir Lawrence Gowing, the artist, who said that I was a genius of a painter but that he could not say the same about my films! I was sketching the Judge Underhill at the time and I held his gaze resolutely. Then a QC asked me for a sketch. Don't forget to sign it, he said. The jury went out to consider their verdicts. They came out the jury room enraged. I got 14 months. I see that you were convicted of murder in 1969, said Underhill. We won’t be considering the matter of your licence as it is not relevant. I woke up the next morning and met a legless man, swinging on crutches to slop out. The stench of urine and faeces in my nostrils.

The judge will only give you fifteen months. Ted assured me as long as you put Videx into voluntary liquidation. If you don't it will be four years.
I heard later that they were sending all the cheques back, cancelling advertising, not paying 28 day invoices and nicking any cash. They built a debit of £7000. I had been taken out lock stock and barrel.
I still had to go up to the Old Bailey on the 1983 raid when the OPS came on a warrant naming the Videx Video Show and perverting the course of public justice...
David Offenbach went to a Judge in Chambers asking that I be bailed on a £25000 bail. Dr Mike Perring, a friend of mine, stood bail for me. I had not been recalled and was released from the Scrubs on bail. Sarah Hope-Walker and Sara my girlfriend met me at the gate. We all were entwined together. As I walked out the gates I had my hands on both girls’ bums, the tight arses wriggling under short skirts. The screws could see it in the CCTV monitors. We had a threesome back at the flat in Earls Court.

I told the QC that I would be calling famous witnesses. Derek Malcolm, the film critic, Tuppy Owens the author...
Not with me representing you, you wont, answered the QC.
Why? I said. I have studied previous trials and that is how they got off.
We have come to a private agreement among the judiciary not to allow the circus anymore, he said emphasising the circus.
Ok you are sacked then, I said. I will conduct my own case. I had made up my mind and nothing would dissuade me from now on.
I started studying law in preparation for my forthcoming trial at the Old Bailey on producing an obscene film the Videx Video Show and perverting the course of justice knowing that it had been done.
I got a letter saying that I was requested to attend a special session at the Old Bailey. I had never heard of such a thing but I guessed that it was something to do with me representing myself. Finding myself inside that ancient building with Sara, sitting beside me. Suddenly trumpets started blaring out and a name was announced his Lordship had arrived.
Isn't this wonderful Sara said her large black eyes shining with excitement.
His Lordship seated on his throne thus brought his gaze to bear upon me.
You may think that you know how to defend yourself better than anyone else. In my opinion it is a stupid mistake that you have made. You can change your mind he said, warming to his subject.
A slight smile flickered across my face.
You are entitled to Queens Counsel and indeed, have been awarded a very learned and able fellow.
What do you think?
Charges then they would get a second chance with the perverting the course of justice. A charge usually reserved for people who corrupt policemen or jurors. In my case it meant that I had to go to the Old Bailey and defend myself. It had felt good dismissing the QC. He gave me the idea when he said: not with me defending you.

I was out on bail and one of the conditions of my bail was that I did not make any films.

I got a flat in Earls Court and moved in with Sarah. A few weeks later Bella moved in as well. I used to have some right scenes with them. Practically every might. One day Bella brought round one of her mates. Here was this beautiful chick asking Bella if I wanted to fuck her too. Would she like to join in the scenes we were having.

As I walked through Earls Court with the three girls I saw a guy in a doorway with a serpent’s tail. I felt that the gods were laughing.

As the trial date grew near I sorted out my old copy of Arch bold. I also wrote off letters to liberal magazines. There was a gagging order on the trial which I had agreed to. Why I don't know! It was suggested to me that I should not let the jury who would be trying me on the perverting the course of justice should not be prejudiced by seeing the film.

I realised that if they did not get me on the obscenity charge then they would get me on perverting the course of public justice knowing it had been done. I had my name as director on all the film titles as well as Videx Ltd and the address, phone etc... Yet the prosecutor was saying that had attempted to destroy evidence by erasing a number of videos that I had in my office for trade purposes. Some were samples from foreign firms plus one copy of each of my own titles. My motives were supposed to be that I was denying making my own films!
Finally the day of the obscenity trial arrived and I got the tube from Earls Court with Sara. I knew that one night I would not be making the return journey and would instead be sleeping in Wormwood Scrubs. A dirty stinking hole where violence took place on a daily basis. I hardened myself to stand up to it, jogging skipping, sparring and meditation.

THE OLD BAILEY TRIAL
I was sitting on a bench in the Old Bailey, my co-defendants, Sara cameraperson, Lyndsay Honey actor and John Curry a director. The Judge was speaking to me.
May I call you Michael?
Yes my Lord, I replied.
Michael you have chosen, very foolishly in my opinion, to defend yourself, thinking no doubt thinking that you know best. Now you do not have any experience in defence so I am going to offer you a chance to make it easier. Normally in the usual run of events the Prosecutrix, that is you would go first and present his case. What I suggest is that we reverse the normal pattern of events and you go last, having listened to all the other defending counsel. You give up the first bite of the cherry. What do you say? I saw the red ripe cherry and I knew that the first bite was the sweetest.
No, My Lord, I answered, I will stand on tradition and have the first bite myself. A ripple of conversation rippled through the court and public galleries
I looked at the glittering lion and uniform above the Judges head and knew that this was a place of theatre and of miracles.
Up the public gallery faces were smiling at me.
I think that this is a good time to adjourn until tomorrow.

This was it I walked into the Old Bailey my bag was going through the scanner. Suddenly the uniformed court attendant
Pointed towards the monitor showing the contents of my bag.
What is that there in the corner, he asked.
I replied my pipe.
He held up the little Japanese blue porcelain pipe embossed with a cannabis leaf in gold.
I walked up the stairs the returned pipe in my pocket. In the toilet I lit and inhaled. I walked into the courtroom and went to where I sat in the well of the court. Slowly the court filled up. The jurors filed in one by one. I noticed Time Out and City Limits among the periodicals carried by the jurors.
The clock was ticking and opened law books and magazines in front of me. I heard a few coughs as the tension built. I waited. There was a general shuffling.
Suddenly I heard a voice booming out in the Bailey, echoing around the court. I looked at the Coat of Arms above his Lordship's head and knew it was I.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury I stand here accused of making the Videx Video Show which the prosecution say is both indecent and obscene. I say it is a question of "Honi soit qui mal y pense”. I turned and shook the bone and the ugly little fat man. He thinks what he sees in The Videx Video Show is evil. He looks at the proximity between a nudist’s penis and a child’s head and imagines fellatio. Evil be to him that evil thinks I said pointing the finger at him. He staggered back as if from the force of a blow. I knew truth was a powerful weapon indeed.
Ladies and gentlemen I ask you to go and look at the Show again and at the sequence the prosecutor mentions but before you go let me tell you how the Eureka sequence Fun day came out. I am a practising naturist with Sara. I glanced sideways at Sara and she gave me a little smile. We heard that the Game for a Laugh team was coming to film us. I then had an idea that I would film the Fun day and play a trick on Auntie BBC. We filmed in the nude ladies and gentleman while the BBC team sweated in the heat. In the Fun day sequence you hear me ask the BBC and Sarah Kennedy if they wanted to take off their clothes. Make up your own minds if there are any really indecent images. The rest of the Show is any of it likely to corrupt an adult? There is sex and bit of spanking. To corrupt a person means to make bad, to make a person bad and to deprave means the same. I think that the Videx Video Show is a bit of a laugh and fit for any adult who wishes to buy it in a free country. I made this Show to be watched by adults who had purchased it and not by you, but I ask you to watch any part of it again and see whether you can see the evil that his learned friend for the prosecution sees.
The jury looked excited as they filed out; one of the women who were red faced from giggling with another girl gave me a little smile. I felt good and knew that the gods were on my side!
I would like to call my first witness now My Lord.
Derek Malcolm the Guardian film critic stepped into the witness box.
Are you Derek Malcolm and a film critic? I asked him.
Derek replied, yes and I am Chairman of the International Circle of Film Critics'
Do you write for the Guardian?
Derek: Yes
During the course of your work do you ever watch films of the porno genre?
Derek raised his eyebrows at this question and I let a slight smile flicker across my lips.
Yes during the course of my writing I watched about ninety six this year so far.
Have you ever watched any of my titles? I asked
Yes I have watched several. Derek replied.
Including the Videx Video Show?
Yes.
How would you describe my work within the genre of porn?
Harmless erotica, he relied.
As he said it I looked at him with admiration. He had the courage to oppose the establishment and say what he thought. I knew that I was off.
I called the rest of my witness including Tuppy Owens.
Are you Dr Tuppy Owens, author of several books on erotica?
I knew that I did not have to do anything else but I went on.
A strong looking guy on the jury made a yawning gesture at me. He wanted to go home.
The jury filed back into the court. They sat down I knew that they had reached a verdict.
Have you reached your verdicts, the judge asked them? If so please read out your verdicts starting with Michael Freeman.
The guy who had made the yawning gesture stood up.
We find him not guilty on all charges.
Elation coursed through my body. I had won.
Sarah Bhaskaran
Not guilty
Lindsay Honey?
Not guilty
I punched the air in a victory salute as the judge told the jury that they would never be required again. I picked up Sara in my arms. Come on lets go home. I said.
Suddenly a guy standing in the well of the court spoke to me.
Michael has not seen you for a long time.
It was a famous QC I had known for a long time.
It's corruption at extremely high levels you know, of course.
Yes they never cleaned up the corruption at all did they in the Seventies. I know that.
Michael its hot news even now the Sixties corruption.
Yes I know the DPP'
It went to the top, even the Home Secretary.
I know that it would create a scandal, even now.
Michael has you ever heard of Sandra's parties?
A picture of my ex at a big orgy flashed through my mind
No I have not, I replied.
He looked at me knowingly.

Out side the court the News of the World reporting we had got to know so well was waiting.
Mike, she said the NOW wants to buy your story.
What do they want me to say I said walking away?
Just a juicy story about the orgies you went to and the people who went to them.
What names and places? They want me to be Mr Nasty now. I replied contemptuously.
Mike stop. Look I will take you out for a meal.
In the Chinese restaurant. I ordered the best wine.
She started to talk telephone numbers in my ear.
I kept on refusing and she was up again on the phone to the NOW.
Fifty thousand Mike thinks what you could do with that. You need it to make a film.
I knew that I really did. I would have loved to have been able to take the money,
No I said.
But why don't you just make it up from the material you have about me already.
She had been up the Videx office in Wimbledon and Lyndsay Honey managed to fuck her across the car boot.
Because I already had the story written with you being found guilty, she said
I started to laugh. The irony
I heard later that she had a nervous breakdown over what happened. She wrote a book about it but no-one would publish it!

The Second Old Bailey Trial on the same film. The Videx Video Show
The prison van rolled out of the Old Bailey. I looked at the seat number. It was thirteen, same as the Court I had been found guilty in!
The Gods were laughing. I stood in front of the doctor in Wormwood Scrubs reception. Fifteen months, the screw said.
I knew that I would serve ten months, with good behaviour.

I had been found guilty of perverting the course of public justice, knowing that it had been done! I remembered this was what one was charged with to try and bribe a policeman or a jury member for example. All I had done was follow my solicitor's instructions and he had told me not to have any samples of my films in my office. I found this requirement hard to comply with because I wanted to look at my own films and show them to potential clients.
I had bought an image eraser that if one put a VHS on top of it would erase it in a couple of seconds. When the OPS knocked on the door of Videx Ltd's offices with a warrant I erased all the VHS copies I had in the office. I remembered the solicitor's word.
If the don't get you on the obscenity charges then they will get you on the perverting the course of public justice.
But that is double jeopardy, I said.
Nevertheless, that is what they are going to do, he said.
I looked at the walls of the puce coloured walls. They were covered in dried snot. Someone had wiped their noses on the wall.
Next money I walked up to the screws box on the landing.
I want a move out of that cell, I said. It's filthy.
What's your name and cell number?
Freeman numbers thirteen, I replied.
Well collect a bucket and scrubber from the cleaner at the end of the landing. Say Officer Grant.
I put the scrubber on the wall and it went sticky. I tried to scrub it but the wall turned into snot. I would like to move out of that cell governor, I said. I can't get all the snot off the walls.

THE DISCHARGE
The day of my discharge neared and I started to worry whether or not I would be recalled under my life licence. It lasted for life if I stayed in England I knew that. I remembered the words of the trial judge when they had read out my convictions. When “murder 1969” was read out the jury looked at me as if I was some kind of monster. I was in the short term wing at Wormwood Scrubs. I had got fifteen months and with good behaviour that would be ten months. I had been on a £25000 bail for three months after my acquittal on the porn charge. Now they had got me a second time on the same charge! “Perverting the course of public justice knowing that it had been done” I had destroyed the video tapes when the OPS had raided my office. The authorities had been determined to stop me making anymore English porno films. I had satirised the ruling classes in my Rich & Randy series and they did not like the joke at all.
I kept a low profile and often joked with screws and other prisoners about my films and it was amazing how many people had seen one, especially the screws that made comments on the camera work and so on! Finally the big day arrived and hope lay in my heart that I was not going to be recalled. No-one had mentioned anything. The night before I packed my kit and I had gone through the discharge process of going to inspect one’s possessions and clothing and had also seen a doctor!
I was awake at the crack of dawn the next day listening as the footsteps of the screws boots echoed on the slate landing nearing my cell. Then he was there, opening the cell door.
“Freeman discharge,” he said.” make your way down to the ones with all your kit.”
Three other prisoners were already there their kit stuffed into a pillow case and two blankets and sheets rolled up under their arms. Everyone was smiling and joking as we marched towards “reception.”
“In there” a screw ordered and we all filed into the cell.
The door opened.” Okay draw your breakfast” ordered the screw. Everyone took their breakfast on a steel tray. One guy offered his to another prisoner.
The prisoner refused saying “eat it, if you don’t they say that you will always come back. I ate mine for a different reason because I thought that they would try to break me psychologically by using the false discharge trick. Finally the door opened and the screw broke the tension.
“Alright everyone except Freeman,” he placed the emphasis on the word free and I expected the worse. My heart missed a beat but I knew that I had to keep a brave face on it.
I sat there for hours then the door opened and a leering screw was outside.
“Come on Freeman. I have been instructed to take you to the lifer’s wing to see the governor.
I walked next to the screw past the other blocks the lifer’s wing at the end. The screw unlocked the big steel gates with a crash.
“Wait there” the screw said “until the governor calls you.
I stood before the governor who had some official looking documents on the table in front of him.
“Full name and number to the governor” a screw ordered
“Freeman 59867889” I replied like a robot.
“I am instructed to inform you that the Parole Board has recalled you because you were charged with a crime of violence while on parole. Consequently the Parole Board has revoked your licence.” The governor looked at me to see the effect this statement had on me.
I kept a straight face. “Can you tell me the date of the offence and with what I was charged?” I questioned.
The governor became annoyed. “No I can’t at the moment but if the Parole said that you were recalled for being charged with a crime of violence then you must have been.” He said with finality.
“Well I am sure that I would know if I had been charged with a crime of violence” I replied with confidence” and I have never been charged with any such crime let alone being found guilty.”
“I never said that you had been found guilty” replied the governor with emphasis on the word guilty.
“I reiterate” I replied confidently “that I have never been charged with any crime of violence.”
“Yes so you say, but in the meantime you must get on with your life sentence and you can apply for parole at the appropriate time” he said with some force.
“Well what I would like is a special solicitor’s letter so that I can inform my solicitor that the Parole Board has recalled me on false grounds and also with this in mind I would like a copy of the documents of recall.”
The governor was going red with anger now because he was not used to being spoken to like this, especially by a lifer who in general tried to go with the flow because it was believed that you would never get out otherwise.
“Put down for application for the letter in the morning” the governor snapped “and I am refusing you a copy of the documents of recall.
“I merely wanted to expedite my appeal against recall” I replied keeping calm “but don’t worry my solicitor will obtain the documents.”

“You are on the threes” the screw informed me “cell 48.”

The next morning I awoke in the lifer’s wing in Wormwood Scrubs. I felt really down and wanted some hash to ease the pain. Soon people that I had known during my time as a lifer at Parkhurst and Maidstone began to appear. One diminutive Scotsman Johnny “the poison dwarf” met came to my cell. “Is there any smoke about” I asked.
“Aye” Johnny replied” with a grin.” I can get you a half ounce deals Mickey; I know that you are always good for it.” Soon I was sitting in a cell telling my tale of woe of how I came to be back on a “recall.”
The authorities always talk about “rehabilitation” and other such propaganda but British prisons are corrupt and law stops at the prison gates. If you wanted to you could score a bag of heroin on credit or cash on the prison landing. It was well known among prisoners that illegal substances could be obtained from prison dealers. The sources were other prisoners, some supplied by “bent” screws. The Scrubs was full of dealers some who were rich from dealing and who continued their trade on the inside.
While in prison I usually spent my time in the education department and I knew the guy that run it and he soon fixed me up with a job as a teacher. I did not get much pay but I enjoyed teaching art and this gave me the opportunity to paint. I produced an enormous body of work during my time in the Scrubs and many a prison officer or con had my work hanging on their walls.
It took me two years to prove that I had never been charged with any crime of violence.
I started a case in the European Court of Human Rights alleging double jeopardy. It was accepted by the courts and I looked like getting a substantial sum of money. One day I was transferred to Lewes prison where I met an old acquaintance of mine “Bomber Bill Williams”. He was a bit punch drunk and the first night of my arrival knocked out a prisoner in front of me. I was not in for long when he told me in confidence that he had been visited by a guy called Rossi who had offered him a contract on my life. I was lucky that Bill was not a murderer but just a cockney hard case. Rossi sweetened Bill up with a couple of ounces of the best Indian hash and we spent many a pleasant evening getting stoned and talking about our past exploits. Bill told me about the time he fought for the championship of the world in New York and I regaled him with ales of making porn films. One day we were in his cell with two of his prison pals and he said as a joke:” Mike put a pillowcase over your head.” This was a reference to the large sum of money he could have earnt if he had killed me. I had a reputation as a good fighter myself and he would have preferred an easy kill! He respected me and we used to work out together. He paid me a compliment one day telling a crowd of cons that I “was fast, strong and flexible.” He was in love with a girl and one day he got a letter, "A Dear John” as they were known. He looked very sad. When he went on “home leave” shortly before his release he asked my advice and I old him to forget her and find someone new. When he came back he explained he had tried to get her back but failed.
“You were right you know”, he said. Bill had a soft side to him when you got to know him.
One day Tudor Gates, the famous playwright came to see me. He visited regularly during my sentence and brought up lots of paints and canvas. Also Ken Campbell who also brought art material. They had met my girlfriend Sara who had told them about my plight.
A couple of years had passed and my case was due to be heard in the ECHR. I got a call up from the governor and he suggested to me that if I gave up my case against the government then I would soon get parole. I agonised in my cell knowing that if I waited a few years then I would be quite rich. However I could not stand to be locked up any more so I dropped my case at the ECHR. Sure enough I was granted parole but not before someone from the Home Office came to see me with a message from David Mellor, a minister in Thatcher’s government “with a special interest in pornography.” The message was that if I ever made pornography again then “I would spend a very long time in prison indeed.”
Being a pornographer had taught me that corruption was everywhere in this country, even at the highest levels. I was released my company Videx Ltd taken out. I felt that England was not safe for me anymore and that I ought to leave the country.