IT would be the biggest of understatements to say that Darren Green’s life hasn’t exactly turned out the way he had hoped.
The 45-year-old has a murder conviction for which he spent 14 years in prison, after a fight with a friend got out of hand.
It has cost him his marriage and his relationship with his daughter who he has not seen since she was 18-months-old.
He was given a life sentence, and although he has since been released, will be on parole until the day he dies.
He was jailed in 1997. His guilty plea to manslaughter was rejected and he was convicted by a jury.
Darren, who lives in the town centre, said: “It (the fight) was a situation that got out of hand. I went way overboard and it ended in tragedy.
“I still do to this day say it was manslaughter, but it doesn’t matter. It matters to me on a personal level because I did not set out to do what I did on that night.
“When I look back at how things have turned out, it saddens me. I think about the victim’s family, I think about the victim, I still have bad dreams. It’s not good, it’s hard to live with but I have to. I have no choice. I just have to keep moving forward.
“I can’t rewrite history or take back what happened, if I could I would do it in a heartbeat.
“To be honest, I was poorly. I was diagnosed quite early on in my sentence as suffering from mental health problems. Thankfully, I have been successfully treated with medication for the last 20 years and I have been fine.
“A lot of people have said I should appeal the murder conviction on the grounds of diminished responsibility. But I didn’t have the energy and I didn’t want to put the victim’s family through that.”
Darren said it breaks his heart that his daughter does not want to know him, but he accepts her decision. He doesn’t even know what she looks like.
Darren spent more than 14 years behind bars and said prisons were ‘regimented’ and ‘not nice places’ but he did manage to improve his education while inside.
“There is a routine, you have be in a certain place at a certain time, you’re escorted back and forth. You’re surrounded by some of the worst people imaginable.
“I just kept my head down.”
It was in prison that Darren discovered his love of art. After picking up a book in the library, he started to copy the work of Vincent Van Gogh and other artists before painting his own creations.
“I read the life story of Van Gogh and I could relate to him, his drinking, his mental health issues. I also discovered an abstract artist called Kandinsky and I got into abstract painting.
“I was stopped from entering exhibitions because it is an offence to make money while in prison, so the NSPCC came and picked 15 great big canvases up and auctioned them off to raise money for abused children.”
Towards the end of his sentence, Darren was allowed out on day release and worked in a Marie Curie charity shop in Preston. He was released in February 2011.
He has also taken up photography, entering many camera club competitions. He is hoping to join Barnsley Camera Club. Though he may photograph a subject more than once, there is only every one print of the same photo.
His subjects include Barnsley Main pit head and Monk Bretton Priory, and Darren likes photographing portraits. His subjects have included the Big Issue seller who regularly stands outside Marks and Spencer and a ex-heroin addict who has since died.
He said: “The more interesting the face, the more I want to photograph it.
“I would definitely say art has saved my life.
“It’s so hard to explain, but it sets you free. Even though I was locked up, when I was painting, I was free.”
