Hello world and welcome to my nightmare blog! My name is John Bartlett and I’m the author of 2 books, Chequered Justice and Dark Horse.
This will be my very first posting, (if you exclude the video posting for my latest book, Dark Horse, uploaded by the talented book cover artist Cathy Helms, who kindly set this blog up for me).
I’m about to turn 58 years of age and I’m very happily married to Mary, have two sons George and Jonathan, a brace of Border collies Mr Breeze & Mr Moo and an ex stray cat known as HeShe. I’m also an ex (very, very ex) professional racing driver from back in the 1980’s and am profoundly dyslexic… oh, yes, I’m also a “convicted fellon”, a title bestowed upon me by the British Justice System, for crimes I will, to my dying day, always maintain were the result of a “set-up” between very powerful financial corporations and the Metropolitan Police.
It’s now 2o years on from the day in Febuary 1993 when, under the cover of darkness, around 12 police officers raided my Sussex home … A trial took place after 2 long, horrendous years of character assassination by the Metropolitan Police, and somehow, inconceivably, despite the facts, I was found guilty and sentenced to a total of 6 years in prison. Every attempt to appeal was blocked… we even appealed against the decision to not allow an appeal! And so, I was condemned to this agony that words can never express.
Most people, having “served their time”, attempt to hide from the stigma and somehow build a new life… For a time we did try to hide, in the rainforests of Madagascar, but if you continue to maintain that you were and are, totally innocent of any crime, there’s nothing to hide from, so we returned. Ten years later, my book, Chequered Justice was published.
The 8th Febuary 2013 will be the twentieth anniversary of the police raid that changed my life. Eighteen years on from being found guilty, I still wake shouting, drenched in sweat from the vivid nightmare world that still haunts me. A place I was plunged into, by the very people I’d grown up believing were the “good guys”. It’s a nightmare world that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, but if you want to know what happened, subscribe to this blog and over time I’ll tell you the facts. For legal reasons I will not publish real names but if anyone out there has any information or similar stories please get in touch….
Next Post: The day my life-changed forever