One of the country's most notorious prisoners says he is "coming home" after more than forty years behind bars.
Charles Bronson is said to have parole hearing as soon as June, and is confident he is "closer now to getting out" than he has been in "30-odd years".
The 70-year-old, who grew up in Aberystwyth, was first jailed for seven years in 1974, aged 22, for armed robbery – but more time was added due to attacks on guards and fellow prisoners. He was released in 1987 but has spent more than 40 years inside after returning to jail soon after.
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Bronson, who has changed his name to Salvador in honour of artist Salvador Dali is due to have the first ever parole hearing to take place in public. They have been introduced to boost transparency and public confidence after an outcry over plans to free black-cab rapist John Worboys in 2018.
In a phone call from jail, he told the Daily Mirror: “I’ve got my jam roll [parole] coming up. All my reports are excellent.
“It’s looking good, it really is. I’m closer now to getting out than I have been in 30-odd years. Up to now there’s not a date, but it’s looking like June, July.
“I’m the first man in the British Isles to have a public parole hearing. All these decades I’ve done.”
The bare-knuckle boxer has staged nine rooftop protests and held a reported 11 hostages.
In 2014 the Spurs fan attacked 12 prison officers at Full Sutton Jail after 'losing it' because Arsenal had beaten Tottenham in the FA Cup.
He has spent most of his time inside in solitary confinement, and writes poetry and paints, as well as sticking to a strict exercise regime of runs, squats and press-ups.
He said: “I still smash my press-ups out. I’m 70 years old and I can still do 95 press-ups in 30 seconds. I don’t walk on the yard, I run – sit-ups, press-ups, squats, I love it.
“When I go out on the yard that’s my hour of freedom. I’ve got a big smile, I’m happy. I’m walking out as fit as the day I came in. I’m coming home.”
The Category A prisoner is currently at HMP Woodhill near Milton Keynes.
He also spoke about a number of other high profile convicts, including serial killer Levi Bellfield who was allegedly caught groping a female visitor at HMP Frankland where he is serving life for the murders of 13-year-old Milly Dowler, Amelie Delagrange, 22 and 19-year-old Marsha McDonnell.
Bronson said: “Did you see that piece of sh*t was on a visit with a woman, and allegedly groping her? It’s upset me because people like Bellfield are evil monsters. He’s a serial killer.
“I’ve done my bird for all these years – 30-odd odd years of my sentence has been in solitary isolation, punishment blocks, dungeons, closed visits...I couldn’t even smell my visitors, let alone touch them.
“That man should never be on an open visit. All his life he should be isolated.
“Bellfield, from the day he was sentenced 20 years ago has been on the protection wings. He’s not just a murdering bastard, he’s a coward".
Bronson, who spoke exclusively to Wales Online three years ago, also believes Michael Stone, who he has served time with, was wrongly convicted of killing mother-and-daughter Lin and Megan Russell in Chillenden, Kent, in 1996.
“I know Michael Stone. All these years he’s been in prison, not one day of it has he been on a protection wing. The reason he hasn’t been on a protection wing is he claims he’s innocent of them murders. And I believe he is.”
He reveals he also almost targeted Soham murderer Ian Huntley, who was at HMP Wakefield when Bronson was held there.
He said: “My best mate Ray Williams, god bless him, he’s no longer around, came up to see me once in Wakefield. All my visits in Wakefield were in a cage. It was like going to London Zoo. A couple of screws had brought him over and I could see he was upset. I said, ‘What’s up, mate?’
“He said, ‘I’ve just come through the visiting room. I’ve just seen that Ian Huntley sitting there with two girls – two teenage girls visiting him, and I was going to go over and f***ing knock him out. And a screw grabbed my arm and said, ‘Don’t do it, Ray’.
“Ray was fuming...he’s come up to visit me and he sees me in a cage – I’m not allowed in the visiting room, and he’s got to walk through that visiting room, seeing Ian Huntley sitting there with two teenage girls.”
He added: “I tell you one great thing that did come out of Frankland Prison – see that Covid? It f***ing killed the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe. I think that’s blinding, that’s brilliant.”
Bronson, who was played by Tom Hardy in 2008 biopic Bronson, wed Coronation Street and Emmerdale actress Paula Williamson in 2017, though the marriage collapsed and she was found dead at her home in July 2019.
