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LAG BOSS
I was Charles Bronson’s prison governor – here’s what the lag is REALLY like… and the scariest thing he ever did
A FORMER prison governor has revealed what goes on in the mind of Charles Bronson - "the most violent prisoner in Britain".
David Wilson was tasked with checking on the infamous lag every day and his experiences were startling.
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Now a leading criminology professor, who features in Channel 4 show , Wilson has told The Sun: "I had to check on Bronson's well being every day."
"And I would be accompanied by two members of staff as I did that... And I would say something along the lines of, 'Are you alright? Do you have anything you need to ask?'
"And one day, the officer opened the door and said, 'Stand up for the governor'. Bronson was already standing up.
"He was naked. And he was completely covered in black boot polish. He had sharpened the ends of his moustache into little points," Wilson says.
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"And he said - as the door was opened - he said, 'I'm going to stab you with my moustache'."
Wilson continues: "I said to the prison officer, 'Close the door', but the prison officer was transfixed by this extraordinary image and extraordinary statement.
"And I had to shout, 'Close the f***ing door'. At which point the door was closed on Bronson."
Bronson was initially sentenced to seven years in 1974, but the felon has spent over 50 years in prison owing to the scale of violence he has inflicted on prison guards and other inmates while inside.
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At Broadmoor in 1983 for example, he caused £250,000 worth of damage while staging a three-day protest on the rooftop.
He has bounced between prisons and high-security psychiatric hospitals wreaking havoc and violence along the way.
At Wandsworth Prison he attempted to poison a fellow inmate.
In 1999 he took a prison education worker hostage and was sentenced to life.
He was further sentenced in 2000 to a discretionary life term, with a minimum of four years, for taking a prison teacher hostage for 44 hours at HMP Hull.
69-year-old Bronson, who now uses the name Salvador, is serving the life term at HMP Woodhill in Buckinghamshire.
In November last year he was granted a Parole Board hearing which will take place this year.
The Parole Board said it granted an application made by his lawyers for his latest case review to be heard in public.
In his 2000 poem book, Bronson said: "I'm a nice guy, but sometimes I lose all my senses and become nasty.
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"That doesn't make me evil, just confused".
Despite all this, Wilson is careful to point out: "Bronson is not at all the public image that he has constructed for himself about who he is."
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