Not sure where to ask this so here it goes!!

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Sorry if this sounds strange but I want to ask you all about the prison system. I live in the uk, and our prisons are over crowded. Just briefly, two years back, I was involved with some bad guys who I thought were my friends. One night they took me out for a car ride. I sat in the back the whole time, enjoying the sound of the engine and music. The guys got bored, and decided it would be fun to set fire to some wheelie bins. I protested and was ignored. I was miles from home so couldn't walk back, so I stayed in the back of the car the whole time, telling them to stop. Anyway, after two hours and six fires later, the guy in the front wanted to go home, so the driver dropped him home. I moved into his seat, and was also taken home. Just a mile from my house, a police car drove past us, turned around, and pulled us over. I was pulled out the car, flung onto the bonnet and arrested on suspicion of arson. Even though it wasnt me, they said that two males had been seen in a small car like the one we were in. So I was arrested.
In the morning, a lady interviewed me, and didnt tell me anything. I didnt know I was allowed a lawyer or that I didnt have to say anything. This lady saw how scared I was of being in the cell, since Id spent hours the night before whacking my head into the door and screaming to be let out because I was claustrophobic. She told me I could go home within the hour if I just admitted I had started the fires. I believed her, and falsely admitted Id started all of them, just so I could go home and get out the police station. I had no idea how bad the charges were.
I went to court a month later, after having some confusion with the words '' on bail''. I thought it meant something about being on a hay bale, and the policeman in the station thought I strange for saying it. Anyway, I went to court, and was charged with six counts of arson to wheelie bins and two counts to fences of properties. Apperently, the fire came within inches of a house window. I had no idea because the driver sped off as soon as they were started. I was told by the man in court that I was being imprisoned for five days and would be released on probation. I wanted desperately to tell them that I hadnt done it, but I thought if I did that and named the actual culprits, they would come after me and my family, maybe setting fire to our house or car. So I went along with it, and was driven in a van to prison, where I stayed for only two and a half days, but it was the worst experience of my life. I started to headbang in the nurses office where they interviewed me, I broke down crying and screaming when they told me I had to stay in the tiny cell for two nights, and I had such bad panic attacks in the actual cell where they let me stay [on the hospital wing] it was unbelievable.
It was only after I was released I realised that the two guys I had been involved with didnt care about me at all, and laughed when they heard I had admitted the offences, calling me naive, stupid, ret*d. Even now, two years on, I have major anxiety when I'm alone or outside, I wake up in cold sweats in bed convinced I'm in a cell again or somehow fallen into a hole I cant get out from. I refuse to leave my bedroom most of the time because I am so afraid of what could happen to me again. I dont want to make it sound overly dramatic, but I'd like to know your thoughts on this.

It is part of the formal booking in procedure to ask if you have a solicitor or if you would like to be appointed a duty one. For this not to be mentioned is irregular and I should think illegal.

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_rights/legal_system/police_powers.htm#your_rights_on_arrest

I have been arrested, and although I hadn't done anything wrong I had sense enough to make sure I was appointed a solicitor when I was asked and not to be interviewed without one.

If I were you I would explore my legal options as you may have a case for prosecution against the police.

This is so awful. You poor guy. Makes me very angry at the police and justice system. Have you been diagnosed with Autism? Because this should've been taken into account surely? Its got to be so frustrating what happened to you, I can't imagine. It doesn't sound like you're being overly dramatic, just normal. The problem is that you can't prove anything now, or change what happened. So I guess you've just got to accept it, and be comfortable with yourself. Those 'friends' are nasty people you should forget.
You should probably talk to someone? If its affecting your life, it could really help.
Man, your story has really made me angry, I can't imagine how you feel. Good luck.

And I agree, you may have a case against the police. They need to know these kind of things happen, or it'll keep happening. And complete **%$£$%'s will get away with stuff while other people's lives are ruined.

actually surprised anyone replied, thankyou! No, when I was booked in at the station all they did was ask my name and address, and I think they took a photo too, then put me in the cell overnight. I dont remember anything being said about a lawyer/attorney. The next morning too the lady who interviewed me, im positive she NEVER said anything about lawyers or being allowed any form of help, she showed me some photos that had been taken of the fires and said, I can see you dont want to be here any longer, if you just admit these were all you you can be out in the next hour. She showed me the photos and even though I didnt know if they were even the same places the guy had burnt, I just thought it would be best to say it was me so i could go home. Had no idea too that if it had set fire to a house it could be up to 14 years jail sentence? I think she used me tbh, by the way she saw I was panicking after being locked up she seemed really nice, but inside, I now think she was laughing at me and thinking, yeah, I can make myself look good by getting a conviction.
I wasn't diagnosed by that point no, I think it was the summer afterwards I got to see a pyschiatrist who said I had aspergers. That was after I got paralectically drunk and had a meltdown, smashing my head into railings because I was so low. That was the final push to work out what was really wrong with me.
The two guys, I stopped speaking to after that, one became a cocaine and cannabis addict who now lives with his girlfriend, neither of them work, they just take drugs all day. The other one who was driving has tried to contact me numerous times through text/xbox/ hotmail but I ignore him. He even came outside my house in his new car recently and started wheel spinning and pulling the handbrake up, so when I ran outside to see what the noise was he started shouting abuse at me from inside it, calling me a little weirdo etc. then drove off beeping the horn.
I'm not planning to do anything about the legality side, even though I think it was wrong and probably the worst experience of my life I doubt anything would come of it, and it would cost a lot of money [that I dont have] to get any sort of case formed. But I would like to make sure everyone is aware of what theyre entitled to if theyre arrested, and maybe even to make police and prison officers more aware of autism/aspergers.

You're lucky you are in the UK. If you were in the US they wouldn't have been so sympathetic.

Are you a minor or an adult gazinator1990?

Was this in England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland?

cool story bro.

I think you were mistaken lying to the police like that. You should have stuck to the truth. Poor luck ;(
Looks like you were involved with the wrong friends. I suggest you pick your friends more carefully next time.

If you have a low income or none at all, you could seek legal aid in order to get initial advice over what you could do.

If you didn't seek legal advice at any stage, then you didn't have a fair trial. If you do get advised to take it further when you acquire professional advice, then I imagine at very least the CPS or police or whoever will have to give you your legal fees back.