Stephen Gillen was just 14 when he first experienced life behind bars. A product of the care home system, he became a hardened criminal, mixing with the worst of the worst and ending up spending 17 long years in some of Britain's most high-security prisons.
It was there that he was put through what he would call "the seven levels of hell", under constant observation and the threat of violence.
Now free from prison and married with kids, Stephen uses his experiences to try and stop others from going down the same road that he did.
Born in England and raised by an aunt in Ireland, Gillen grew up in Belfast at the height of the troubles in the 1970s.
The death of his beloved aunt saw Gillen move to London at the age of nine, which is how he entered the care home system.
However, it turned out to be a traumatic move, where Gillen experienced physical abuse in several care homes.
He went to prison for the first time aged 14 for taking and driving a vehicle without consent, theft, and criminal damage.
In the years that followed, Gillen became known as a firearm-carrying hard-man who cheated death hundreds of times as he mixed in dangerous circles.
In his memoir The Monkey Puzzle Tree where Gillen speaks of his former life, he reveals several violent encounters including one, more than 28 years ago, where his head was split open - his response was to return with a gang seeking revenge.
At age 22, in 1993, he was jailed for 17 years for attempted robbery and firearms offenses.
Over the years he would be incarcerated in 25 different prisons including Brixton Unit in 1991, Hull Special Unit in 1998, Full Sutton, Long Lartin, and Whitemoor Dispersal Prison five times in the 90s.
Gillen, 51, is now reformed and works as a humanitarian, philanthropist, and CEO of his own media company. But his life today is very different from the dark times he went through in prison.
He experienced long periods of segregation where he was "cut off from everything human he knew or identified with" which would leave an indelible mark on his life.
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