Screenwriter needs your help

[AMVC]

Too personal or seemingly pointless... I'll try and think of some better questions

Heres a wee incident that occured in my flat the other night that for the first time since I've been exposed to this community and your plight put the fear of God in me. I hope it doesn't cast me in a bad light but we all have our limits in life.

I live in a flatshare, I hate loud music coming through my walls, moreover I hate loud R&B teen pop music coming through my walls ALL day, ceaseless. I like peace and quite. I like to hear my thoughts.
If you're loud, unhygenic, and messy, irrespective of any other attributes, I will not like you, plain and simple.

And so, this young African girl recently moved into my flat and inhabits a room beside mine, she's sweet enough compared to others I've had the misfortune of sharing with.
She is home all day most days I am at home and she plays loud music from the moment she wakes to late in the evening(she once played 'TLC's - Waterfalls' easily more than thirty times back-to-back. I stopped counting at twenty). My ear plugs are virtuely redundant its so loud, not to mention her speakers are backed against the abutting wall to my room, therefore it sounds as though the music is coming from my room in certain areas of the flat.

I have pollitely asked her numerous times if she would turn it down as I'm trying to work but can't concentrate for the life of me. Her retort is always that she pays rent and she can do what she wants, and she continues by saying that I can do what I want.
Obviously I express that I want peace and quite and a compromise is the solution here. She will turn her music down a notch for the remainder of that day but lo and behold the following day it will be back to the unbearable.

The other night I had endured this music for more than 8 hours whilst trying to write, my output read back as lacklustre, subpar. It was only her and myself in the flat.
Suddenly the stress levels tipped into the red and I expelled a toxic roar and a chain of expletives to vent my frustrtion and calm myself down. I was indignant that she could be so arrogant, so selfish, so inconsiderate. Naturally she didn't hear this.

I went out to get some food and returned to much the of same, bellowing music, different song.
As my food cooked I knocked on her door a bunch of times and called her name, no answer.
Short of kicking in her door or turning off the mains(which I have done before, but doesn't serve me when I need light) I was at a loss what to do. I settled on eating my meal and then going back out for a walk to let it go down.
During preparation of my food I gathered a load of oft-unused plates and shoved them in a uppertier cupboard, one slide off the top and smashed on the tile floor as I skillfully caught another. I went to clear it up there and then but thought **** it, why bother?

Subsequent to my walk an hour or so later she knocked at my door inquiring about the plate and to clean it up. I said I'm doing something now and will tend to it later, my tone prompted her to ask what my problem is? So I told her in no uncertain terms what my problem was: her music. I didn't swear and I was temperate.
On hearing this she burst into a tirade, flinging her hands up in my face, "why do you not come to me if you have a problem?! you are crazy!", it was almost comical, almost.
I explained that I have asked, nicely, on a number of occasions if she could turn down her music and she choose not to, in full knowledge of my grievances.

Then, and this was the catalysit for my later anxiety, she started spitting that I was crazy and lying and she produced her phone exclaiming, "I'm going to phone the police. I'm going to phone the police and cry and tell them you're throwing plates at me and I'm scare you will hit me!"(not verbatim) to which I told her to do just that and we'll see how that unravels. I turned away from her and closed my bedroom door.

As I came back to my laptop I was thinking about how immature she had underscored herself to be... and then it struck me like the power of two planets colliding: What if she does phone the old bill and says I've struck her? What if she claims I tried to sexual force myself upon her? The plate throwing came from nowhere, and then the violence threat, she could be the type to fabricate a story out of malice. What if?... WHAT IF...?

All I could think about was this place and its members. I was clearly drenched in paranoia, but for a good hour or so I ruminated about being questioned, strip searched, swabbed, the whole nine yards. Unrelenting thoughts of quandary.
Not a pleasant feeling, and needless to say its merely a drop in the ocean to what the guys on here have encountered.

I feel like a big fool reading this back because its so trivial, but its testimony to what impact a window into your lives has had on me.

Take care. Stay strong.

[Stellifier]

Bingo! ;o)

And suppose for a moment, out of spite and in mad-minute she does make that call ... but then events overtake her and she can't take it back - she would never be able to stop it and say "no, actually I made it up". It would just snowball and all the while it goes on you are 'guilty until somehow proven innocent'.

[AMVC]

Bingo! ;o)

And suppose for a moment, out of spite and in mad-minute she does make that call ... but then events overtake her and she can't take it back - she would never be able to stop it and say "no, actually I made it up". It would just snowball and all the while it goes on you are 'guilty until somehow proven innocent'.

Thats a whole screenplay right there. In fact thats a pretty damn good pitch/quasi-logline(or whatever they call it). I'm rubbish at pitching, but that's not bad at all.
Shame its not more lighthearted with a sequence of darring-do escapades and an unrequited love plot that ends in smiles and babies

[LS]

Stellifier,
Surreal is certainly a description I felt, and do feel, related to in my experience.

Andrew,
I've often wished that someone would reveal to the world the motives behind a false accusation, if only just to show that the system is institutionally corrupt and that there are many many aspects which need a change on all sides.

In my case, a so-called friend has caused me no end of grief for two decades since we were teenagers. He has lost me jobs by getting pally with my bosses and accusing me of theft, has stolen from me, has damaged property, had 3rd parties beat me up. And all the while smiling to my face. Because I saw the good in people and not the bad, I was too stupid to walk away.

Eventually, he used his teenage daughter as a mouthpiece to have me accused of unlawful sex. Despite having no evidence, or dna, or even a description of a where/when/how/what occurred, I was found guilty. Funny how no one else could see that this was just the latest incident to a long chain of going back 20 years, and how no one is prepared to accept that a minor can be bribed by a parent to falsely accuse someone else. Oh, I've got the evidence of that in writing, but can I get anyone this side of Jupiter to take it into account?

Maybe one day I'll get this mess out in the open and challenge the system for the farce it is, and I'll happily name and shame the b*****ds behind this. What a pity most with the power to make change, don't.
LS

[AMVC]

Hello LifeSucks

Your "so-called friend" seems hell-bent with a crusade to destroy you. As I have learned from this forum time and time again, the worst position to find yourself in is an evidenceless, your word against hers scenario. Its geneuinely terrifying to be privvy to that information. My sympathy and empathy goes out to any man in such a prediciment.

I've often wished that someone would reveal to the world the motives behind a false accusation, if only just to show that the system is institutionally corrupt and that there are many many aspects which need a change on all sides.

Am I the man to do this? I can only promise that I will try. To me, the aftermath is the beating heart of a false rape allegation story, nonetheless I will certainly be shedding light on the broken, immoral, misguided, nafarious system that supposedly upholds the law. If I get the beating heart right, if I can entertain with an emotional journey that hasn't been seen nor heard before, the rest should take care of itself.

Maybe one day I'll get this mess out in the open and challenge the system for the farce it is, and I'll happily name and shame the b*****ds behind this. What a pity most with the power to make change, don't.

There's often a dichotomy of minds in these David vs Goliath battles, most concede that nothing can be changed, lay down their weapons and armour, and give up from the outset.
I say stand up and fight. Change comes from ideas and ideas are bullet proof, but people's actions and voices are the weapons to fire these bullets where they hurt, so doing nothing results in no change.
If you think you can challenge the system do so... just don't do it through the justice system.

Out of interest, who(should this be 'whom'? ) is the person behind the quote in your signature?

Take care.

Andrew

[LS]

Hi Andrew

Thank you for your words. Yes I agree with your first comment, however it's taken me over 20 years to see it now. Short of murder, there's nothing further he can do to me. I take some solace in that, however small.

It is, however, absolutely frightening to discover that someone can use a teenage minor to make an accusation and not one person is prepared to accept that that can be so, even where there is evidence of bribery in writing and on video to support it. The law in this country is totally ignorant of the fact, and not even prepared to entertain the thought that it may be possible, let alone accept it when the evidence is placed before them.

There is much to be said for standing and fighting, however there is little recourse for anyone to do legally. The system stands that unless you lodge an appeal within 28 days of being convicted, you need fresh evidence and pretty exceptional evidence at that, and a damn good reason to get it in front of anyone after that. If I were to try to evidence-gather, no doubts who'd end up being on the receiving end of a harassment charge.

Some are lucky enough to have partners come across the accuser elsewhere (unbeknown to the accuser) and could evidence-gather, but in many cases, and in nearly all like mine, we don't have anyone who travels in those circles.

The trouble is that corruption is so rife in all areas of the legal system, police, judges, lawyers, that chipping away is effectiveless. The only way I see it is to make it clear that this country as a whole is generallly corrupt, from police officers who allow non-police boyfriends to drive marked police cars, to police who actively dismiss evidence that clears the accused, to judges who say (in my case) "I don't care where it is supposed to have happened, only in what happened", without giving a thought for the facts that in order to have a what you need a where, a how and a when in order to arrive at a what.

For me the sticking point is the timing, and the fact it would be contempt of court, even though the court is contemptuous in my opinion. With those dearest to me in their twilight years, I need to spend time with them instead of 2 years in prison. After they've passed on, the gloves are coming off...
The comments in my sig are from another post on here,

http://www.daftmoo.org.uk/mooforum/showthread.php?t=997

I won't say what I feel, as I'd use too many f's, asterisks and k's in the post. Have a read of her post and I'm sure you may come to the same opinion I did.
LS

[LS]

PS Please don't feel I regard all journos in the same vein. It's just that theirs seem to be totally ignorant and abjectly devoid of a conscience - how else could they cause all the hurt and damage with their lies and misinformation just to sell papers? I've known more guilty people with consciences.

I've no doubt there are a few people within these forums who have been accused of rape, not necessarily on adults, yet that point was lost on her. They don't give your industry any PR points.

[LS]

I've removed my sig. While it was a nice idea, I wouldn't want to alienate the genuine decent journalists out there who, like yourself, are striving to achieve the same aims of honesty and change.
LS

[AMVC]

Hello again LifeSucks.

I read the thread you linked. Eimear got a flogging but didn't counter, instead she vanished. Perhaps she wasn't as interested in telling the falsely accused man's story as she wrote.
I did a wee search at the Fabulous Magazine website and it churned out a handful of 'rape' related articles, yet zilch on false rape allegations.

May I ask, were you arrested and taken into custody, or were you asked to come to the station voluntarily?

By the by, I'm not a journalist

Take care.

Andrew

[LS]

I got an angry call from the aggrieved 'friend' who stated police involved, so I rang police to find out what was going on and arranged to go in voluntarily. I had to do this because my job was supplying medicals to patients so if someone could've died if I'd just been arrested. Only time I've ever got a straight answer from the police is when I explained this and had to ask if I was going to be arrested, so I could arrange cover.
I went in volntarily and was then bailed out of the area.

Yes I too had a rummage at Fabulous. Very misleading about readership, type of magazine, and how/who it's part of, so no wonder a lack of trust.
Sorry to class you as a journalist, there are good people out there like yourself and I am keen not to alienate them from the site as we all may need the good ones one day. Plus I'm a 'guest' here so who am I to call the shots.
regards
LS

[macdougal]

Hi Andrew,
Would just like to take a step back into the feelings stage, only just read this thread but would like to give my account.
Im still awaiting the CPS decision on my allegation, but i really feel what was said about surreality.
The difference being I felt this the moment I was arrested. When the police told me what they were there for i let out a little laugh of disbelief and was shaking my head. It felt like i was dreaming (and maybe i thought i was as it was 5am in the morning) for the 12 hours in the holding cell before i spoke to anyone, i felt the emotions of confusion, despare, disbelif, i kept almost crying thinking of my daughter (im a single dad) and how i couldnt face not seeing her for years (as far as i was concerned there was no way the police were going to believe a man over a woman. thats what my belief and faith in the justice system made me feel) then there were the thoughts of suicide. and the fear of alienation and violence from neighbours, fear of what family would think.
all the while the surreal feeling was still there.
And then I spoke to my solicitor, 12 and a half hours after my arrest.
And thats when it became a reality, thats when i truly asked "what the fu*k is going on" once id told the solicitor the sequence of events and he compared them to her sequence and a witnesses sequence. he told me id be out of here tonight as he knew id done nothing wrong. and then came the interview. fear was well and truly surrounding me, but i felt confident that when i told the truth id be believed and it would be over soon.
the investigating officers ensured me id be ok and they even gave me a lift home after waiting 3 hours after their shift for me. which also filled me with confidence. It wasnt until i got back to my ex partners house (who lives right by me and were great friends, shes also my daughters mother) and she hugged me that i properly broke down. and i can tell you now it was a mixture feelings that included, fear, instability, and violation. i felt like my morals, standards and values had all been violated. and so for the first week and a half i was crying constantly, fear still high. then after a while (and i think it was from my mothers words) i had a few days of calm but it felt so surreal again, and then came the anger. and for the past 2 weeks or so ive felt angry, with bouts of depression everytime i think the worst case scenario. Im now at a point where i know the cps have my case and i should find out the outcome late next week, which has actually filled me with relief, still have the fear, but relieved that i will know in a weeks time whether its "officially" over or whether i face court. At least I know the "evidence" is all in and i wont be given an extended period of not being sure with a bail extension.
I am now preparing myself for either a court battle, which im pretty confident would (despite adding to my grievences) be over quickly with my acquital, ora battle with the local police and government to have my arrest removed
from crb records. I will not let the lies of somebody ruin my life and will continue to fight until my name is cleared completely

hope this helps you at all

[LS]

Hi Andrew
Sorry macdougal, I hadn't realised my previous posts had deviated away from Andrew's intial question.

The emotional journey I had from initial arrest until now have ranged from minor irritation when told by the Police they wanted to see me on the initial (minor?) allegation and, yes, I was going to be arrested. This would result in being unemployment being in doubt; a feeling of concern started.
Once I was questioned I felt relieved, they seemed to believe me. Felt relieved having discussed with my family, we all expected an accusation of rape or unlawful intercourse from the girl concerned, going by her dad's actions over the past. Employment resumed, which caused relief too. Unbenownst to me two weeks later "madam" made the feared allegation of unlawful intercourse and I was arrested at 4am, having just worked an 18-hour day, and all I heard was the words "arresting" and "rape." Shock and disbelief.
Up to the trial was anger, consternation, frustration at no one prepared to listen to me or use their eyes to see the lies in front of them, also frustration at having a seemingly-deaf solicitor.
Revenge - many a time I mentally planned to do the party concerned a major injury at court. If he goes to the loo on his own, he's history, etc.
Trial, hope. At the conviction verdict, anger, despair, disbelief that ten people could be blind, deaf, ignorant and just plain dumb.
Post trial/prison/probation until now - anger, despair, sadness at what I've lost, sadness at what my family's lost. Resilience and and urge to fight back and redress the balance if I can't clear my name, ie name and shame the b*****ds for their lies and their actions.
I hope this helps.
LS

[macdougal]

I think I feel slightly more confident because I dont stand to lose much in terms of family a friends. They all know ive done nothing wrong and will support me regardless of outcome. As for conviction and imprisonment, that scares the living s**t out of me. I've never had any dealings with the police in my life as I'm happy to say I have no criminality in me what-so-ever. The worrying thing for me is if I do end up in prison, I dont have a violent bone in my body an the only fighting of any kind that ive been in involved in (other than being jumped) was a drunken boxing fight with a close friend when we were 18. Which was laughing and joking all the way. Im scared of prison because even the most malicious of murderers hate sex offenders which is what ill be tarred as.
On the plus for me,ive had the dont worry this is going nowhere from everyone, friends, family, GP and the investigating officers. so that fills me with some confidence. Lets hope CPS are thinking the same

[LS]

macdougal
First of all let me say this, prison is mostly what you make it. You can to a degree make it fairly tolerable, or you can be miserable and make it unbearable as a result. I've had both extremes.

Prison is full of legendary myths, the biggest being worthy of a Hollywood cliche in that there's a large hairy biker-type in there who wants his wicked way with anything that moves and a few things that don't. It's not true. Your rear end will remain a one-way street for as long as you would prefer it to be.

Seriously, if you are remanded into custody or convicted, you will automatically become a Rule 43/Rule 46 prisoner. This basically means you are Vulnerable Person, and will usually be kept in Segregation/Seg Unit, or a VPU in your local prison. This means you will be in with other people with similar backgrounds, so you will rarely, if ever, come into contact with the Normal lot. Basically, no prison governor these days can afford for you to be assaulted, for which you could sue for substantial sums due to their failure to protect you. You must ensure that they (the prison) are under NO illusions and that you ARE and Rule prisoner. In the 90's I knew of someone who was in for murder of his girlfriend while on drugs, should've been on the Rule, but the governor at HMP Lewes stupidly put him on the normal wings, where he was attacked with a pool ball in a sock. He survived, but it's so unlikely to happen now.

Generally, the normal prisoners can't get to you other than verbally, and if the VPU is below or above a normal wing, they like to shout Nonce, Bacon, or such. Just ignore it. The worse thing you can do is give them a response. In fact, don't get involved in shouting/conversation with anyone out of your window. Firstly you don't know who you're talking to, and secondly some prisons will put you on a charge for it.

I've been in several prisons on the Rule - Downview, Lewes, Albany and Winchester. They are all much of a muchness. Most of the time the screws in VPUs are fairly decent and won't give you any hassle as long as you don't cause any. There's always an air of 'you' and 'them', ie they're not your friend, but mostly you'll get on. The common factor in VPUs is that most who are innocent and end up in there, are usually as you are - professional, polite, quiet, 'house-trained' for want of a better word, and the decent officers will treat you decently. The ones who have an attitude, just avoid them - you won't win any battles.

Generally you'd be in a local prison to your address first for a month or so before being moved to a dedicated VPU, this could be anywhere in the country. Albany on the IoW is one, Littlehey in Cambridgeshire is another, Grendon too, Usk in Wales. When you get to one of these, you'll find most are in the same boat and the only causes for conflict would be personal ones, not because of your past.

Cells are often shared 2 to a cell in local prisons due to overcrowding, in dedicated VPUs they're usually single cell. If you have to share, you'll usually get on with the other guy - he knows as much as you do that he could be robbed/assaulted etc by you, so often the guy you share with is your main ally. I've had times where (and thieving does happen) one watches the cell while the other showers/gets meals etc.

Food is generally bland and tasteless. Imagine hospital food, well that's often better. You can usually spend money once a week to buy nibbles, tobacco, stamps etc by filling in a canteen sheet and the prison gets those items in and you collect. It's once a week on a set day, so if you're a smoker it'll be the first thing you ask about.

The one thing I would say is, it is NOT a holiday camp experience as the Sunday toilet roll would tell you. Yes, some can have Playstations in their cells, but what the NoTW won't tell you is that it is only Enhanced prisoners who can. To be enhanced you have to complete all of your Offender Treatment Programmes, ie SOTP, and as you are maintaining your innocence (as I did) you will be ineligible and thus Playstation-LESS. You will, however, usually have a TV in your cell. It costs £1 a week per cell and the prison take it out of the money you get each week from the prison, which is about £2.50- £4 per prison.

On the whole I wouldn't say I'd go there every year - Ibiza it isn't - but it wasn't that bad. I made some friends, people I really wanted to keep in touch with, both inmates and staff, and many I'd happily forget. What I missed was my family, and the taste of decent food.

I could go on, but I could write a book on it (and some have) when I just want to give you a brief overview of what and what not to expect. I hope I haven't put the fear of god into you, but given a balanced view.
LS

[Casehardened]

macdougal


I could go on, but I could write a book on it (and some have) when I just want to give you a brief overview of what and what not to expect. I hope I haven't put the fear of god into you, but given a balanced view.
LS

When I was doing my research it was impossible to find such a clear, concise, and reassuring account of life in the 'naughty boys wing' as you have just written.

It's definitely worthy of a wider audience, perhaps one of the mods could make it a 'sticky' somewhere on the site.

I believe it was Saffron who suggested that you should consider becoming a professional writer if all else fails, just imagine the delicious irony of composing sweet love stories, complete with happy endings, for womens magazines