Bronson said he’d be back on the yard with ‘a big smile on my face’
Charles Bronson made a strangely cheerful phone call after his request for parole was denied on Thursday.
Britain’s most famous inmate, who has spent almost 50 years locked up, also lost a secondary request to be moved to an open prison.
In a call to Dave Courtney after the decision, Bronson can be heard saying: “Tomorrow morning I’ll be on that f****** yard, with a big smile on my face, breaking out my press-ups, and I hope there’s a couple of screws out there watching.”
He said all the security guards were good for is “stuffing their faces, and farting” and they’re “jealous” of his fitness, which he’s been maintaining for 40 years.
“Then I’ll come back to me cell and I’ll create beautiful pieces of art.”
Courtney told Bronson that “everyone loved your singing so much” and implored him to learn the words to the song, Please Release Me, and to “sing that to me”.
Bronson then broke into song, first announcing that it was by, “one of the greats, Sir Tom Jones… obviously, I’d never sing it to these f****** people”.
Bronson, who has changed his name to Charles Salvador, was jailed for armed robbery in 1974 and, but for a couple of brief stints of freedom, has been in jail ever since.
The 70-year-old’s original seven-year sentence has been extended due to his violent attacks on prison staff and fellow inmates, including 11 hostage-taking incidents in nine different sieges.
The Parole Board said it had noted Bronson had spent most of the last 48 years in custody and that “much of this time had been in conditions of segregation”.
The three board members also said they accepted he “genuinely wants to progress and that he is motivated to work towards his release”.
However, the panel added it was “mindful of his history of persistent rule-breaking and that Mr Salvador sees little wrong with this”.
“He lives his life rigidly by his own rules and code of conduct and is quick to judge others by his own standards,” it said.
“His positive progress has to be assessed in the context of him being held in a highly-restrictive environment.”
The board members said they could not be satisfied Bronson has the skills to manage his risk of future violence until he has been “extensively-tested” outside of his current environment.
During his parole hearing earlier this month, a prison psychologist said although Bronson posed a moderate risk of violence inside jail, it would be a high risk if he was freed.
Bronson, whose real name is Michael Peterson, earlier told parole judges he loved a “rumble” and enjoyed mass brawls in prison.
However, he insisted he is now a reformed prisoner, has found solace in art and is a man of “peace”.
Related links:
- Charles Bronson has a ridiculous first day of freedom planned once he’s released from prison
- Parole date set for Britain’s most notorious prisoner Charles Bronson: ‘I’m coming home’
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