A MEDICAL student who spent five months in custody while awaiting trial for a crime he did not commit has spoken out about his ordeal.

Robert Cole, of Honeybottom Road, Tadley, recalls the time he spent on remand in Winchester Prison as "hard and stressful".

He said: "It is not nice being banged up for something you haven't done."

Mr Cole was cleared of four counts of making explosive substances for an unlawful purpose and one count of possession at Swindon Crown Court last Friday. Although the trial lasted four days, it took the jury just 20 minutes to acquit him.

He said: "I'm so relieved it's all over - I feel vindicated. I have been out celebrating with my mates and I have met up with friends and family who have supported me throughout."

Mr Cole's ordeal began in May last year, when police, acting on intelligence from America, swooped on his student house in Southampton, where they discovered a cocktail of bomb-making chemicals, including ammonium nitrate - commonly known as fertiliser - potassium chlorate, iron oxide and aluminium powder.

The 26-year-old was immediately arrested and held on remand until September when he was released on bail, pending his trial.

He described his time in prison as "difficult and not very nice".

"I do not get fazed by many things," he said. "But it was a worrying and stressful time.

"The other prisoners were friendly and I'm not the kind of person to be mucked about, so I was all right."

He added: "I knew I would get out one day but I did not know when that would be. I'm not scared of going to prison - just scared about going to prison for something I didn't do."

Although he was acquitted, Mr Cole will not receive a penny in compensation for the five months he spent on remand - something he is philosophical about.

"I think there are reasons why people are not awarded compensation," he said. "If everyone held on remand was compensated, there wouldn't be any money left.

"But it does make you wonder. If I had been a man with a family or had my own business, my life could have fallen to pieces.

"I'm not very happy about it but there you go."

During his trial, Mr Cole, who attended Burnham Copse infant and junior schools in Tadley and The Hurst Community College before attending Queen Mary's College, in Basingstoke, admitted an interest in chemistry.

He told jurors he had been conducting small-scale pyrotechnic experiments - but not making explosives.

This led the prosecution to brand him a "nerd" - a title Mr Cole has mixed feelings about.

He said: "I started becoming interested in science when I was about eight years old and I used to have chemistry sets when I was young.

"But having an interest in science doesn't make you a nerd. If it does, the world wouldn't tick over without nerds."

Mr Cole was in his fifth year of medical school at Southampton University and just weeks away from his final exams when he was arrested. He now has to decide whether to continue with his studies.

He said: "I hope to go back to medicine but it's going to cost thousands of pounds and the medical school hasn't decided yet if I can go back.

"I definitely want to continue with medicine in some form or another, but where I go from here, I just don't know."

Despite having to spend time on remand, Mr Cole refuses to criticise the police publicly.

He said: "The police have a difficult job to do and I understand why they did it.

"I'm not happy with them but I'm not going to attack them.

"If they hadn't acted on the information that they had received, then they would have been grossly negligent.

"I have one or two gripes with them that I will deal with behind closed doors.

"I'm going to phone certain people and have a chat with them about why certain actions were taken."