Policemen on patrol outsidethe Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre in downtown Kingston on March 31, 2005, after a warder and three inmates were killed during an attempted prison break. - File

It was his first night on the cell block known as 'special'. It is a block where most inmates in the General Penitentiary (GP), downtown Kingston, never want to be placed. It's taboo, known to many as the block where only homosexuals are placed.

Robertand seven other inmates were moved there by the prison superintendent after being constantly relocated for several weeks. Finally, they were moved to 'special' from another section known as 'building' after inmates there said they were not welcome on that block. The move to 'special' would change Robert's life forever. He relates his ordeal.

While me in the cell in the night, I fell asleep. Then I wake up to find my two foot them tied together and my two hands tied together and then tied to the grill. One of the youth them stand up on my back, have his right foot in the centre of my back. Him take a razor and start cut off me clothes. Me try to bawl out but a next one have a knife at me throat, Robert tells the Sunday Gleaner reporter, while showing the scar where the knife had pierced his neck.

?Hey bwoy shut up you mouth! You try ball out and we murder you inside here tonight,? they warned him. With the knife at his neck he complied.

The said one that stood up in my back, me see him throw one liquid substance on my backside. The whole six a them take turn after turn rape I off, he said. Blood gushed from the area of his neck where the knife was placed.

When them finish the man them tie up the cut up clothes in a plastic bag and say me must get up and put on me clothes and give me a rag say me must go clean up self, because me did in a mess. And them look on me and say anyhow me go to no officer in the morning and complain to them me can remember say me is a dead body,? he relates.

Afraid, Robert did as they said and kept quiet and tried to make friends with them. But that promise was only to be kept while the night lasted.

In the morning some officers passed by his cell. Robert chanced the opportunity to tell them about what had happened the night before.

You know seh the officers them call the six man them in front me and tell me say me must repeat what me just say in front of them, Robert says. He did as they demanded and the men responded predictably that they had done nothing wrong. Robert demanded that a medical examination be done to prove him accurate. He showed them the wound on his neck, but the inmates told the warders that he had done it himself so he could get a transfer to another cell.

The officer them run me and say: ?Go on back in your cell, you think me can put you on my back and carry you to my yard,? Robert says he was told. He went back to his cell and contemplated how he was going to kill himself.

He recounts: ?Me get a razor blade and me get a sheet and me go over the chapel and me start use the razor and mark mark up me face and me start cut up the sheet and start plait it to hang myself. One of the same boy them come over the church come see what a go on, call the warder and say: 'See a man a try hang himself!' The warders rushed to the scene. When they realised what had happened, Robert explains, they started to beat him.

Pure box and kick and lick them start give me, he says. He begged them to kill him because he could not bear the thought of going back. Lucky for him two Jamaica Defense Force (JDF) soldiers who were working at the prison at the time rescued him. They pushed aside the warders and took Robert to the superintendent. He was put in a cell by himself on the remand section of the prison.

The next morning, oil was thrown in his cell and lit. Inmates came to his rescue, and threw water into the cell. He was transferred to the Gun Court prison where he spent four years there in isolation because inmates felt he was a homosexual.

He tried desperately to have the perception of him changed and so he did favours for the warders and smuggled contraband into the prisons on their behalf. Unfortunately for him, he was caught trying to smuggle two cellular phones. He was immediately transferred to the St. Catherine Adult Correctional facility.

At St. Catherine, he was put on the No 1 Block another block where it was believed only homosexual inmates were imprisoned.

?I've been begging them from day one to move me from there until the only thing that they could tell me was that from you locate over there you can?t live anywhere else,? he says. There the abuse continued. He escaped two more attempted rapes, one by stabbing his perpetrator.

This father of two later found that he himself had contracted the virus. ?My baby mother is fit and healthy and me can remember that is several times me and my baby mother were sexually involved before me come to prison, he states, implying that he contracted the virus when he was first raped. If a did road me a come from with this she would have it to, he continued.

He suspected he had the infection when he came down with a bout of illnesses. He was bleeding from the anus, there were rashes on his skin and he could not keep anything down. He told no one for fear the officers would isolate him again. But he could not hide it for long. Robert fell gravely ill and was taken to the doctor. Blood tests were done, including an HIV test. The result was positive. Robert was immediately started on treatment, but he still kept his status a secret from inmates and warders.

Robert applied for parole but has not been successful. He tried again for compassionate release after realising he was HIV positive but to no avail.

He is still hoping to be released before his sentence is complete. In the meantime, he is still contemplating suicide.