I asked to be put in prison. At the end of the day it made me a better person. I got a three year sentence. If I was still running from the law I would have hidden behind drugs. I would never have been able to talk about my rape and I would have died. 

The first thing I did on my way to the shelter home after prison was jump into the icy sea in Seapoint. I had to let the salt water wash the excess of Pollsmoor off me.

Finally I am free of the secrets of my past, of prison, of my inner demons. 

In an odd way the horrendous events of that night may have turned out to be a gift. 

It wasn’t my first brush with the law but it was definitely my last.  I absconded from a sentence passed several years ago when I was on drugs and I needed a fix.  Then it was petty theft.