After 24 years of schooling and being socialised in the Canadian way of life, he was charged with trafficking narcotics. However, he was acquitted on the grounds of mistaken identity.

But, instead of being released as the judge has ordered, Gary Lindo was remanded in lock-up until his deportation from the country.

Lindo said, "Several days later after lock-down, I was summoned from my cell about midnight."

He added: "I thought this was strange because it was against regulations to open a cell after hours. To my surprise, it was an immigration officer telling me that I'm on the 6 o'clock flight."

Lindo said, "I called my lawyer, who told me that what they were doing was illegal, but there was nothing he could do seeing that I was being moved when all the court offices were closed."

Thus, Lindo was placed on a flight en route to Jamaica, leaving behind three children to be supported by their mothers.

nightmare

Following his return to Jamaica, Lindo said he had no place to go. He revealed that on the advice of another deportee, he headed to Westmoreland.

But things turned into a nightmare for the jobless deportee as he was framed for planning to rob a shop. However, Lindo said he had instead revealed the plans of a group to rob a shop to the son of the shop operator.

He said, "I was lying in my bed and a voice in the back of my mind kept telling me to get up and leave the house, so I did."

He added that on leaving the house, residents of the area "came knocking down the door, asking, 'Where is the deportee boy? We come to kill him'."

The unfortunate situation left him with the only choice of spending four and a half years in the hills of Westmoreland trying to stay alive from his would-be killers.

Lindo then made his way to Clarendon, where he got involved in criminal activities, and this resulted in him spending another four and a half years at the Spanish Town Adult Correctional Centre.

He said during a religious crusade in prison, he decided to live for the Lord.

Lindo, sharing that the transition period was never easy, accredited his changes and successes to the Open Bible Church and others.

The aspiring preacher, in addressing the negative things often said of deportees, stated, "Not because we were deported ... means that we cannot change."

- S. G.