Faith

As a local press photographer in Bath, Dave Little encountered the usual raft of golden wedding snaps and council press calls. But a defining moment in his career came as he casually glanced out of his car wing mirror.

"When I got to the bottom of the road I lived in I looked in the wing mirror and all this blonde wavy hair, and as a young attached male I looked round to see who it was, and it was Princess Diana!"

However Mr Little, a little green around the gills, decided to wave at the princess, who was in her car at the traffic lights. The security officer in her passenger seat spotted him.

"To cut a long story short we had a bit of a car chase around Bath and I just didn't know what to do. I had all this adrenalin going through my body," he says.

After parking up Mr Little successfully guessed Princess Di was off to Bath on a shopping spree, and headed to the city centre.

Reading Young Offenders Institution

"I bumped into her again, but by this time she was wearing a head scarf and puffer jacket and quite disguised."

His photos ended up in the tabloids, and, remarkably for a member of the paparazzi, managed to snap the princess without disturbing her.

"This was around the time when I had also had become a Christian and I just couldn't harass the poor woman.

"I got in trouble with the agency that I worked for because what I should've done is stand about ten feet from her face and follow her everywhere and taken pictures.

"I just couldn't bring myself to do that."

Instead, he managed to persuade a shop owner to stand in his window. From this position he could photograph the princess without the detective noticing and without harassing her.

"I was pleased at the time and my career as a photographer took off," says the vicar, "I was in demand to be used a lot more."

However not everyone was impressed.

"So he wrote to the palace saying 'I know Dave Little, he's a nice young man really!'.

"He got a really nice letter back from Kensington Palace saying 'we've taken note of the information that you've given us'."

Four years later Mr Little decided on a radical career change, thanks to a vicar who led his local bible youth group.

"It was through his ministry and preaching that I started to reflect upon my life and the claims of Christianity.

"I realised that Jesus died on that cross for me and rose again to give me new life, and that's when my life and my desires were transformed.

"I wanted to share the good news that I had with other people."

A year at bible college in Derbyshire led to a recommendation for Reverend Little to train for chaplaincy. He spent another three years at theological college and then three-and-a-half years training as a curate.

The Reverend admits that becoming a chaplain at a prison was not his ultimate goal.

"It was the last place I would want to go," he says.

But after enjoying a stint as divisional voluntary chaplain for the Metropolitan police and attending a chapter meeting inside a jail, he took on a post at Bristol prison.

Afterwards the Chaplain General decided to send Mr Little to the Reading Young Offenders Institution.

"I didn't want to come to Reading to be honest and I didn't particularly want to work with young offenders," says Dave, "but I got sent to Reading and I'm pleased that I have been.

"I enjoy being here and I actually enjoy working with this age-group of people because you can actually do something with them; they're not all set in their ways."

Part of his job is to interview every single prison inmate that comes into the prison, part of his statutory duty under Prison Act 1952.

"We have to see all prisoners each day who are segregated because of their bad behaviour, we have to see those who are in hospital because they're ill, and the main ones we need to see are the new prisoners, we check when they come in that they're okay, we check their religious registration, and check they've got somebody to visit them."

At Bristol this led to a meeting with Gary Glitter, real name Paul Gadd.

"We used to give out cards and on the card were the names of the chaplains in the prison and the times of the chapel services.

"There was a space at the bottom of the card to write the prisoner's name and number so I wrote his name, Paul Gadd, and his number and at the bottom I wrote 'Do you wanna be in our gang?'.

"I gave it to him and he said 'no thank you I'm a Buddhist'."