Charles Bronson’s most outrageous quotes on day one of his parole hearing
Britain’s most notorious prisoner Charles Bronson did not disappoint spectators on the first day of his public parole hearing – delivering a series of outrageous one-liners as he made a determined bid for freedom.
Bronson, who has spent almost 50 years behind bars, quipped how he has had ‘more porridge than Goldilocks and the Three Bears,’ in an opening address to the parole board sitting at the Royal Courts of Justice, adding: ‘I’m sick of it. I’ve had enough of it, I want to go home.’
The infamous inmate appeared at the hearing via video link from maximum security HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes, with the press and public invited to observe proceedings via a live stream.
He repeatedly said ‘I’m getting bored of this’ after his legal representative asked for a break.
And he moaned ‘We will be here all f***ing day, won’t we’ after the panel took long pauses while asking his prison offender manager questions.
Bronson told the panel: ‘Give a man a break.
‘We could be sitting around this table until the cow jumps over the moon talking the same old c**p.
‘I’m just a normal geezer wanting to get on with his life.’
The 70-year-old appeared to be sipping a small carton of juice through a straw.
He briefly stood up and asked for a tissue before informing the court: ‘I haven’t p****d myself’.
He also said his trademark glasses were necessary after solitary confinement caused his eyes to become sensitive to light.
‘Don’t think I’m wearing these glasses for sinister reasons. My eyes are blown away with the light,’ he said.
And he also revealed how he has been ‘betting for 50 years’, and won £1,500 last year.
He tried to persuade someone outside prison to place a bet for him, telling the panel: ‘We all love a bet, guv, come on.’
The prolific prisoner said he was a ‘retired prison activist’ but deserved much of his time in jail.
‘Out of the 50 years I’ve been in prison, I have probably deserved a good 35 years of it…but I have been naughty.
‘Not “naughty, naughty” but naughty,’ he added.
Bronson revealed today how he changed his name from Michael Peterson for ‘tax purposes’ when he went into boxing during a brief period of freedom.
He was initially jailed in 1974 but was released from prison in 1987 aged 34.
However, after just 69 days he was back behind bars and sentenced in 1988 to seven years for robbery.
Bronson told the hearing: ‘I lost the plot in prison,’ adding: ‘The only thing I knew was violence.’
He told the hearing how he had slept in ‘cages’ and ‘boxes’ and spent ’40 years of my life in solitary’.
Describing one incident, he told how he stripped naked and ‘greased up’.
‘I took half a tub of Lurpak with me, stripped off and had the rumble of my life. It was f***ing brilliant.’
Recalling how he been part of prison rooftop protests, he said he enjoyed ‘every f***ing one of them’.
He went on to hold 11 hostages in nine different sieges, with victims including governors, doctors and, on one occasion, his solicitor.
Referring to the prison art teacher he held captive for three days in 2014, Bronson said: ‘You’ve been my best hostage, you’re the only one who hasn’t s*** himself.’
When quizzed about causing a prison governor post-traumatic stress disorder, Bronson retorted: ‘That was 30 years ago and I’ve moved on from that long ago’.
But he said the governor, Adrian Wallace ‘was an a******e, is an a******e and will die an a******e.’
In the same year, Bronson changed his name to Charles Salvador, after his hero Salvador Dali.
He wants to be known for his art and poetry, which reflects on the life he has led in jail.
And he revealed his methods to manage negative feelings.
‘When I’m in my cell and I’ve got a bad letter, or something’s happened, or someone has been nasty or whatever, I can sit in my cell now and switch off, and go into myself with deep breathing.’
But he added: ‘Sometimes people push, push, push, take the p**s, it’s blatant p**s-taking, and some people need a slap, it’s as simple as that.’
Bronson told how he had previously been housed on wings that were ‘cold, empty and f***ing brutal’ – but now, prison cells are more comfortable.
‘I’ve got a telly in my cell, I can’t believe it,’ he said.
But he said unlike other inmates who have their own bedding, photographs on the walls and comforts such as CD and DVD players, he likes to know he has woken up in a cell.
‘I don’t want my cell to be a furnished bedsit…unfortunately, prison today is full of fairies,’ he said.
Bronson was the first prisoner to formally ask for a public hearing after rules changed last year in a bid to remove the secrecy around the parole process.
He vowed ‘I’m coming home’ after finally getting a date for the hearing last month.
The hearing will continue on Wednesday but the third and final day will take place behind closed doors on Friday.
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