 My name is John
Taylor.I ’m thirty-eight years old and I ’m from Glasgow.I recently
moved to Blackburn.I ’ve been on the streets since I got here. I came to be homeless because in Glasgow I ’ve got a son called Steven who is sixteen years of age.I suffer from Schizophrenia which I ’ve had for eleven years.A dealer tried to get my son on to heroin and I ended up fighting with the dealer and I took a pound of heroin off him and smashed it in the street.Therefore,I had to leave Glasgow pretty quick. I think England is much worse for drugs than Scotland.I used to be on heroin about seven years ago.My son helped me get off it.I have also got another five children who I ’m hoping to bring down here when I get a house.My wife died when she was twenty-eight years of age.She choked on her own vomit.I was in such a state at the time that I wasn ’t allowed custody of my own children.They are staying with relatives in Scotland at the moment.I ’ve got a son who is twenty years old,a daughter who is eighteen,and four other sons who are seventeen,sixteen and fourteen and thirteen. I spent most of my younger years in prison.I was not in prison for dishonesty because I ’m not a dishonest person. I ’ve got one charge against me for serious assault.A man attacked me with a bottle and I had to defend myself.All the other charges are drink related.I ’ve been in Brlinnie Prison, Lowmoss Prison and Peterhead Prison,all in Glasgow. At the moment I ’ve got cancer tumour.I know I could go for treatment but at the moment I ’m not prepared to do that.I want to establish an environment here for my family to live in.That ’s what my ambition is.I want them to get themselves a job and a career so that they won ’t be pulled down into the world of drugs and drink. |
