PTSD - A soldier's tale

Recent estimates put the number of ex-servicemen in prison at around 8,500. One of them, Jimmy Johnson, talks candidly about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the hidden factor that helped put him there

I served in a Royal Regiment for ten years and was involved in two conflicts: Aden in 1965 and Northern Ireland in 1972. I was discharged from the army with an exemplary record and was highly decorated for my services in Northern Ireland. I even got a mention in Dispatches!

But in 1974 I was charged with murder, to which I pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. I served a total of nine years and on release, about 18 months later, I killed another man. I pleaded guilty and was again given a life sentence, of which I have so far served 24 years.

It was only while serving my life sentence that I discovered I was unknowingly suffering from combat-related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) because of my action in Northern Ireland, which I had no idea about at the time of my trial.

PTSD isn’t used as a mitigating circumstance in trials, mainly because people standing trial aren’t tested for it. Unless a lawyer puts it in front of a judge it just isn’t thought of. The authorities seem to have a very convenient ignorance-is-bliss policy towards combat-related PTSD in the prison system because, hey, if there’s no official way to diagnose it then ‘who cares’?

My discovery led to the realisation that many other ex-soldiers in the prison population might have PTSD but have never been checked for it.

The Government are paying around £340 million of taxpayers’ money per year to keep 8,500 former troops/veterans in the prison population without even treating them for combat-related PTSD. It’s better and cheaper [for them] to keep quiet.

All inmates in the prison system have to complete a Prison Services’ Rehabilitation Programme which is focused on ‘Offending Behaviour’ courses, which are (supposedly) designed to lower the risk of prisoners reoffending. However, if you are a veteran unknowingly suffering combat-related PTSD you will, like me, pass through all these offending behaviour courses without knowing about PTSD and the reason why you came into prison in the first place.

I started to campaign while in prison for PTSD to be something that should be looked at whenever veterans are on trial because I’m angry that it was completely ignored for me. It has been confirmed now that my PTSD played a part in the crimes I committed so I feel like the outcome could have been very different.

• Jimmy Johnson was talking to Cathy Reay

•• Veterans in Prison has published a survival guide for combat-related PTSD in prison, which can be viewed at www.vetsinprison.org.uk