DJ Grooverider has spoken about the “appalling” living conditions he encountered while awaiting trial in a Dubai Detention centre.

The Radio 1 DJ was jailed for four years in February for drugs possession but spent almost four months in detention awaiting sentence.

The DJ was released last month after being pardoned by the Dubai Royal Family.

Speaking about his ordeal, the Grooverider said he had originally passed the time in detention by reading books and playing chess.

"They don't have toilets, they have holes in the ground. There's eight people to a cell and they do treat you alright don't get me wrong but it's just horrible seeing so many people come in for nothing," he told the BBC.

"The despair and the unhappiness. That's more battering than anything else."

Grooverider, who is perhaps most famous for his weekly drum and bass show on Radio 1, was found in possession of 2.16 grams of cannabis when stopped at Dubai airport in November last year.

He said that the hardest part about the experience was being away from his daughter.

"It was the worst part missing my girl grow up for the last year," he said. "I talked to her at Christmas and she was in floods of tears and that wasn't the easiest thing to deal with."

"I didn't even recognise her because she'd grown a foot."

(by Jason Gregory)