FOR years Steven Bryant, a father-of-four, slept on the floor.o

Now he has his own cell, about 6ft wide by 10ft long, and his own toilet.

But when he arrived at Kenitra central prison, where he was transferred for disciplinary reasons having complained about conditions elsewhere, he was put in with another inmate, and had to sleep in the 18ins gap under the concrete bed.

In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Mr Bryant, 46 who is serving a ten-year sentence, said: "The whole experience is like a nightmare and I don't feel the reality of things properly like I should. If I was to come home tomorrow and my mother and father were there it would be perfectly natural because all this is a dream.

"When I think back to the first three years I had at Tangier, I slept on the floor for three years in a space about 15ins wide by about between 60-70ins long. Looking back now, I can't believe I did this.

"It just seems that every time I get pushed down I seem to want to fight more."

He added: "This is the way it is here. It's vastly overcrowded and there's nothing you can do about it.

"There's so much gone on since I've been here anyway. You end up with two feelings I feel like I've been here forever but it also feels like it's gone quite quick.

"I've been through quite a bit since I've been here. Here it's just misery all the time. People walk round, they're totally lost."

To help pass the time, Mr Bryant whose parents lived in Brooker Road, Waltham Abbey reads and does exercises. He cannot bear to face the food provided by the prison so he cooks his own with items obtained from shopping lists he gives to consulate officials.

Recalling the hearing which sparked his "nightmare", he said the court jailed him for eight years when it could only give five years. A second court then upped the sentence to ten years.

The proceedings were held in Arabic and, said Mr Bryant: "You don't have a clue what's going on at all in the court which is a complete violation of your human rights."

Friends and family and Epping Forest MP Eleanor Laing are among those fighting his corner at least trying to get him transferred back to Britain to serve out his sentence here.

But Mr Bryant said: "There's actually no transfer agreement between England and Morocco even though they've been working on it for six years. Eleanor Laing has tried to help me but she's always come up against a brick wall. But she's been working to try and get me a transfer home."

And then there is the fine, which he said was increased by the second court from £3,500 to £20,000. Failure to pay the money will lead to another year in prison, he said.

Both his parents, Sheila and Peter, have died since he was jailed.

He is determined not to give in, and will remain strong until he his freed.

"I think how my mother and father would want me to handle it, and the last thing they'd want me to do is break up at all," he said.

Mr Bryant's son Chris and brother Peter have both married since he has been in jail. And he has six grandchildren whom he has never met.

November 15, 2001 8:19

David Jackman