When you get inside you are allocated to a cell; either a single or a double or sometimes triple - disgraceful, three men in a cell built for one; all over the prison estate and denied by a succession of lying Home Secretaries one of whom - Blunkett - I loathed and still do.

In your cell you start making it homey - pictures on walls etc... you hate having to move and often going to court means getting moved which can be a nightmare (packing etc); so many choose not to attend in person.

A lot of inmates prefer to share - it's company when you're locked up for 23 hours a day.

Plus - you become so cynical about the process you simply don't want to be a part of it. Why stand in the dock, not allowed to speak, witnessing lying witnesses and police, being sneered at by jurors, hearing appalling things said about you, the majority of which is untrue?

I didn't bother to attend my appeal. I knew they would chuck it out. Bent, the lot of them.

Don't give them the satisfaction of seeing you despair.

Mind you, if I'd gone I'd have spotted the lead Judge had been at Cambridge with me and had his own reasons not to mention that.

Plus, you have to stay overnight in Pentonville and the stories about that are awful.

So there are many reasons why defendants do not attend court. Says a lot about our system, doesn't it?