Reformed criminal and drug user tells how acting helped him turn his life around

Robert McCahill, 46, spent years in and out of prison, using drugs, committing crime, begging and sleeping on the streets.

But now, with help from Inverclyde support workers and volunteers, he's clean and following his dream of being an actor.

Robert says he is wracked with guilt and feels a lot of remorse for the crimes he committed in Inverclyde.

He will be forever thankful to the people who gave him the chance to go some way towards making amends for the pain he caused.

He said: "Greenock helped me get clean.

"It will always be my home.

"Volunteering in Inverclyde was my way of making amends to the damage I caused."

Robert grew up in Larkfield until age of eight when his family moved to Overton, then to Port Glasgow and then up to Fancy Farm.

There was a lot of moving about and changing schools and when Robert's parents sent him to Greenock Academy, he was separated from his friends.

Robert said: "I spent a lot of my life feeling different from the people around me.

"I was quite a bright kid and was expected to do quite well.

"I was still getting As but started to get into drinking and petty theft and left school with just an O level in physics."

Robert fell in with a group of youths around the Wren Road and Grieve Road area and started on a cycle of using drugs and committing crimes to fund his drug habit.

He started breaking into houses and shops and progressed to using temazepam, diazepam and ultimately heroin.

Robert says he found solace in drugs and with people who encouraged his behaviour and made me feel like he fitted in.

He added: "My friends were either being murdered, taking overdoses or doing life sentences.

"I know that I'm really lucky to still be here.

"Looking back at it now I see that I lived through trauma.

"At the time I thought that was all just part of growing up on a housing scheme and I normalised it.

"I didn't have the ability to listen to my conscience.

"I felt so bad about myself that the consequences didn't matter."

When a friend invited Robert to go with him to live in the Highlands he made the move and things began to change for the better.

Although he hadn't spoken to his family in five years, he made a new life for himself up north with a supportive girlfriend and a good job.

But he soon found his way back into criminal activity and was in prison again by the age of 30.

Up until 2014, he was in a vicious cycle of using drugs, going to prison, coming out of prison and living in bedsits.

He ended up homeless on the streets of Glasgow and spent four years sleeping under the flyover between the Marriot and Hilton hotels in the city centre.

Robert said: "I begged to fund my drug habit.

"I said that my family disowned me but the reality is I broke all ties with them.

"I accepted that was just the life I was going to have.

"I wasn't living, I was just existing."

In 2014, after Robert was charged with shoplifting, the court looked at his criminal record and saw there was a clear pattern, and that prison clearly wasn't stopping him from committing crime.

The sheriff awarded a structured deferred sentence and Robert got involved in a persistent offenders project.

By May that year, Robert had a job as a support worker, his own flat and was rebuilding relationships with his family.

But when he came up against obstacles in his life, he crumbled and lost everything.

After two years clean, he began using heroin again.

Robert said: "I remember one day lying in bed after being out begging in the town.

"The heart was ripped out of me.

"I just thought 'throw yourself out of the window'.

"It was at that point I asked for help."

With help and support, Robert ended up at Jericho House in Greenock where he went through their 12-step programme.

He got involved in voluntary work across Inverclyde, helping out in Larkfield and with the Your Voice recovery cafe.

He added: "I did a lot of damage in Greenock and I wanted to make amends for that by giving something back to the Inverclyde community.

"I realised that I didn't know anything and that these people were experts and I had to listen to them.

"For the first time in my life I started listening to other people."

Robert also got involved in Jericho's stage shows shows and realised that he enjoyed acting.

He joined theatre company Sweet for Addicts and was offered the lead role in a play about the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Since then, he has played Shylock in the Merchant of Venice, starred in musicals and played professional gigs.

He's also been in a film and works with the University of Strathclyde as a mentor for young people to encourage them to get into further education.

Robert recently completed an HND in Acting and Performance at Glasgow Kelvin College and will soon begin third year of the performance course at the University of the West of Scotland.

The Morton fan is excited about the new era in his life and says he now has an amazing relationship with his mum.

He said: "I should have been doing this 30 years ago but it's never too late.

"Being able to sit down with my family and friends to express remorse and take ownership for my actions has been an amazing experience.

"There are some areas of my past I am really ashamed and embarrassed about but it's made me the person I am today."