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Prison was hell - but taught me so much, says Saints star (25.03.2008)
VINCENT Pericard was not only released from prison last year, but perhaps also released from the shackles of his previous personality. The Cameroon-born striker certainly cut a different figure from the reserved and somewhat detached character his colleagues have come to know during his Stoke career.
A quiet man whose shyness could easily be mistaken for aloofness, he might be the first person you see at 6ft-plus, but definitely the last you would hear.
But half an hour in his company, reliving an experience he intends to see enrich his life, suggests his personality was also liberated during his five weeks behind bars.
And that new sense of freedom, together with an inevitably different and healthier perspective on life, can only enhance Pericard`s chances of rebuilding his career best described as unfulfilled after 14 months at Stoke`s Britannia Stadium.
He tells the story of the worst and longest five weeks of his life with refreshing honesty and humility, but seeks no sympathy for the conditions forced upon him for what many will consider a relatively innocuous crime.
He still feels bitter about his four-month sentence, but has learned to quell his anger with a more forgiving nature than he once possessed.
Prison has changed him for the better, he insists, and he hopes to demonstrate as much both on and off the field.
His five-week imprisonment was an assault upon his mind and body, as he experienced a suicide in a neighbouring cell and five days using his trousers as a pillow in a police cell, while food was so unappetising and frugal that he lost weight.
He would almost convince himself he was an actor or reality TV contestant, not Vincent Pericard, in order to cope with an experience for which he was caught so unprepared that he didn`t even scribble down the phone numbers of his nearest and dearest.
He still vividly recalls the horror of being sent to prison after the judge imposed a four-month term for lying to police when he claimed he was not the driver of his speeding car.
"I`m not going to say they got it wrong. I tried to lie to get away with it and I was caught. I hold my hand up to that," he admits.
"I was standing there in court for the judgement and didn`t realise at first what he had said to me. I was in shock.
"I wasn`t prepared, even though I had been warned it could happen.
I didn`t have chance to say goodbye to anybody. I had earlier been texting a friend to say I would see them tomorrow.
"Obviously I didn`t have my phone on me, but nor did I even have any phone numbers. So I couldn`t contact anyone for days even if I had been allowed to."
Pericard spent the first five days of his sentence not in prison, but marooned in the stricter confines of a police cell because of a delay in his transfer following the court hearing.
"I was sentenced on the Friday, then there was the weekend and then there was the Bank HolidayMonday. It was far worse than prison because they couldn`t let you out of the police cells like they can in prison.
"There was no bed to speak of and just a tiny blanket, so I used my trousers for a pillow and my Tshirt as a blindfold because the light was on 24 hours-a-day.
You were allowed to wash, but I had to stay in my same clothes for the five days I was there.
"The food was absolutely disgusting - chips and one apple each day. There was no sink, no TV. You were allowed out once a day.
"All you could see from a tiny window was the sun rise and the sun set. There was nothing to do except read five-monthold magazines they gave you.
"And I had no watch on me, so I had no idea of the time.
That was the worst time for me, but I didn`t cry - there was just great frustration."
There was considerable relief, therefore, when he and four fellow prisoners were eventually transported, each in a tiny cell en route, to the high security category C prison in Exeter.
Here he would spend the next three weeks rubbing shoulders with fellow residents from across the criminal world.
"The first night was very, very hard," he remembers. "The cell wasn`t very clean, but better than the police cell. The first few nights I was on my own, then I shared with a man from Stoke who knew me because I was a Stoke player.
"Our cell would have been about four metres by three metres. We had a tiny TV, but no view from the small window, only light.
"I got on well with him, but he did scare me with some of his stories. He was 22 and since the age of 14 he had been in and out of jail.
"A lot of people knew me there because of my time as a Plymouth player and because they had seen my case on the TV news."
So what was the normal daily routine for his threeweek stay at Her Majesty`s pleasure in Exeter?
"At 7.30am they let you out to take a bowl down for your breakfast and then you take it back to your cell to eat.
"At 9am those with jobs were allowed out, but I didn`t have one, so I stayed where I was. At 11am I was allowed out for half an hour to shower, make phone calls and walk around the exercise yard.
"At midday you were allowed out again with a metal plate to collect your lunch and take it back to the cell.
At 5pm you are allowed down for your dinner and then at 6.30pm they lock you in for the night."
Working options included the library, the kitchen, cleaning or brickwork, but Pericard opted for his three-times-a-week allowance in the gym - but admits the prison officers "turned a blind eye to some extra sessions for the detained footballer".
“I wouldn’t wish anyone to go through it but you learn so much about another side of life. It is priceless what I have learned about human beings."
Vincent Pericard
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He insists there was never any trouble with officers or inmates Pericard imagined he was an actor or reality star to get through life inside. because he was a footballer, but trouble came depressingly close on one night he will never forget.
"The only trouble happened one night as they came around to check on us as usual at 4am. I heard the officer on his walkie-talkie calling for assistance because of something in my next cell.
"They had found the guy next door had hanged himself. I walked past the open door to his cell the next morning and saw the chair still next to the bed. I couldn`t believe he could hang himself in there.
"I`ve never been so close to death before, it really shocked me. You must be so desperate to do that."
He was also happy to leave behind the food - or lack of it - when he was eventually transferred to the much more relaxed environment of Ley Hill Open Prison, near Bristol, for what transpired to be the final 12 days of his incarceration.
"The food was the worst diet I ever had. I lost weight, but I`m not sure how much. The worst was a Sunday, I remember. We would get a sandwich of ham mayonnaise and an apple.
"In the evening you would get chips with a burger and soup. The chips were fat and not cooked. I was always hungry and asking my room-mate for anything he didn`t want. You would save a bit of jam from breakfast for next time. You wasted nothing in there.
"At Ley Hill, the cell was more like a room and you had your own key.
You could also use the phone whenever you wanted. I could also go to the gym every day and at any time. It was a lot more relaxed there.
There was a curfew from 11pm, but it was more like a boot camp. The food was slightly better, but you were still restricted how much you could have."
Freedom eventually came some five days after originally scheduled following a delay in red tape over his immigration papers - and those extra five days were clearly an excruciating experience.
"When you are there, you are always thinking about when you are going to get out. I thought I would be travelling home on theMonday. I had packed my bags and hadn`t slept the night before because I was so excited. So I was devastated when it didn`t happen.
"One of the officers said he had a lot of respect because most people would kick off, but I kept my composure and thought I had to be strong mentally.
"It`s a very mental experience inside. You have to work on your mentality, otherwise you can lose it very easily. But on the Thursday the same thing happened to me and that was even worse.
"In prison, days are like weeks and hours are like days, so I did come close to losing my patience in the end. I had to stay calm and stay patient, but it was difficult.When Saturday finally came, I thought thank God`."
So what did he do with his new-found freedom after five weeks deprived of his normal life?
"What I missed was being sociable with people - just talking normally and being part of a community, not a community of criminals. I love my food, so it`s nice not to have to beg for an extra piece of bread.
"Silly things like having your own music again is nice - just appreciating those things you took for granted before.
"The most amazing thing I missed was milk.When I got home I just had a big bowl of milk with some breakfast. You had milk inside, but so little."
He admits he is still coming to terms with the enormity of such a rare experience for the average man in the street. "I don`t think my mind has really had chance yet to process what happened. But I do know prison is a waste of your life.
"So imagine people in prison for five years or ten years - no contact with people, no phone, no Internet.
Definitely the worst experience of my life."
But one he still values, nevertheless, and one he negotiated by almost shedding his own identity for his five weeks inside.
"From my first day in jail, I said to myself I am not going to be Vincent Pericard, I am going to be like a prisoner in a movie or a reality TV contestant. Almost play at being a prisoner if you like.
"In that way, I have had an experience no one else has had. And it has been a good experience in that it gives me a better outlook on life.
"I would not wish anyone to go through it, but you do learn so much about another side of life. It has made me realise that doing good is better than doing bad, not to hold any grudges with anyone, because life is so quick, and to help people do the right things. I love to learn and it is priceless what I have learned about human things.
"I am a better person. You are always asking how long have you got to go in prison.When someone says they have been in for one month and have 13 years to go - wow!
"I did laugh in there, especially with my cellmate.
"They tell me their fascinating stories.
Murderers, drug-dealers, rapists, paedophiles - you are with them all. I am a very close person and I don`t show my emotion, but at the moment I feel I can hug anyone. I never thought I would say that.
"There is still anger about the sentence. I still think it was very unfair and a lot of people say that.
"But it`s done now and compared to what sentences other people do, I was a baby there.
"I am free now and that is the most important thing.
"Any frustrations I have I will tackle by working hard and enjoying my football again."
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