The Loose Screw (21 page)

Two weeks from the day of his arrival, Charlie greeted us in the morning with his bags packed and ready to move to the main unit as he had been promised. When we made enquiries as to when we could move him we were told that there was no way he was going onto the unit and we would have to tell him that he was to remain in the seg. Despite our concerns that Charlie should hear the news first hand from the person that had made the decision, no one responsible came forward and it was left to us to tell him. Charlie was devastated at the news and, although he appreciated that we were only the messengers and had no intention of harming us, he did ask us to lock him back in his cell and get the governor who had made the promise to come and see him.

Strangely enough, the governor in question had gone on leave the day before and could not be contacted as he was on the ferry to the Isle of Wight. Meanwhile, Charlie was getting pretty pissed off and we knew we had to get someone to try to explain why the promise had been broken despite the fact that Charlie had kept to his side of the bargain so well. In the end Mr Outram, who was then a principal officer on the unit and had known Charlie some years ago at Leeds Prison, arrived to talk to him. Along with him came about four teams of three officers in full riot gear, who were briefed to stay out of sight but to steam in if Charlie looked as if he were going to have a row.

So, whilst Mr Outram was chatting to Charlie in his cell, the riot teams stood outside physically shaking at the prospect of taking Charlie on. The senior officer in charge of them whispered encouragement by telling them that they had to hit him hard and fast and give him as many blows as necessary to immobilize him. He also told them that once it was all over they could boast to other staff that they had given the famous Charlie Bronson a good kicking. Thankfully they were not deployed, as Outram managed to explain to Charlie what had happened and assured him that he would be well treated by us while he was at Belmarsh. He also promised that he would receive no more false promises and that he would ensure that the governor in question would stay away from him.

We, as the staff dealing with Charlie, felt just as let down as he did and decided that from that moment on we would set our own regime for him. Outram agreed to this so long as we kept within the security requirements of the unit. After allowing Charlie some time to accept this setback, we sat down with him and told him of our proposals. We explained that we would come to work in tracksuits and, providing he remained the only prisoner in the seg, we would allow him plenty of time out of his cell during which time we would help him train on the yard. He loved the idea and we set about scrounging any type of sports equipment we could find and soon had a badminton set and a scrabble game and had arranged access to the unit's multigym once a day.

In addition to this, we rescued Charlie's beloved medicine ball, Bertha, from his stored property box so that he could carry out his trademark medicine ball sit-ups. So began some of Charlie's best days in his twenty-two years of incarceration to date. During the next few weeks I was to strike up the beginnings of a strong friendship that remains to this day with a man who turned out to be nothing like the reports I had heard prior to meeting him. We had some really hot days that summer and we all thoroughly enjoyed training with Charlie on the yard and beating him at scrabble, and Charlie enjoyed the trust and companionship that he had experienced so little of during his years in prison.

Charlie had arrived at Belmarsh after being arrested during a brief spell of freedom for an alleged conspiracy-to-rob charge. He was due to appear at Luton Crown Court shortly after his arrival and was glad of the regime we set for him as it gave him a chance to focus on his forthcoming trial. For possibly the first time in his life in prison, we had given him the opportunity to prove to all his critics that he was more than capable of interacting with us and caused us no problems at all. The Home Office, however, had yet another surprise in store for him, and just two or three weeks before his trial date decided to move him to Bristol Prison. We, of course, protested at this on Charlie's behalf and were given no reason as to why this decision had been made at this stage. Charlie had done nothing wrong and had behaved himself impeccably while at Belmarsh, but the Home Office still insisted on moving him to the other end of the country just days before he had to appear in a serious criminal case.

We felt that not only had the Home Office once again failed to give Charlie the best help they could, but also they had failed to recognize all the hard work that we the staff and Charlie had done over the past few weeks. The only conclusion I could come to was that they were afraid that he was getting too comfortable and doing so well that they would not have been able to keep him in solitary conditions legitimately for much longer if he stayed.

Despite our pleas, the decision stood and the day arrived when we were to transfer him to Bristol. At that time Charlie always travelled naked and restrained in a body belt. I had managed to secure a place on the escort and ensured that I had acquired a bag of hard-boiled eggs from the kitchen for the journey. We travelled in a small Category A minibus with tinted windows and, although unhappy with the move and anxious about what to expect, Charlie was in fairly good spirits.

Shortly after our departure we stopped at a set of traffic lights next to a coach of old ladies going on a day trip to the coast. Charlie has a great respect for the elderly and stood up in the van to wish them a good trip through the window. I noticed many of them staring at our vehicle and commented to Charlie that they might be able to see through the windows and see Charlie in all his glory. Charlie assured me not to worry as he had been in more of these minibuses than anyone had and there was definitely no way they could see through the glass. I did not share his confidence as more and more old ladies pressed their faces against the windows of their coach. It was not until we reached Bristol that I had my fears confirmed and discovered that you could see quite clearly through the windows of this particular bus.

It was on this same journey that I received my nickname from Charlie, which has stuck to this day and is used each time we communicate. About halfway down the M4, Charlie asked me to crack a few eggs and hand feed him. I had just moments earlier broken the aerial on his prized Roberts radio attempting to get a clear reception. I turned white thinking that Charlie would return the favour by pulling my head off, but he took it well and we laughed it off. With this still fresh in my mind, I gingerly shelled a hard-boiled egg and fed it to him. No sooner had I popped one in his mouth than he wanted another, then another. I ended up stuffing more eggs into his mouth than he could chew and he had to spit them out in order to prevent himself from choking. He commented that I had almost succeeded in killing him with half a dozen eggs when the Home Office had failed for years in all their attempts. So, from that day on, I was known as the hard-boiled screw. Today this has been changed to the ex-hard-boiled screw, but it has become the name I am called by many of the new friends I have made through Charlie.

When we arrived at Bristol, the usual reception committee was out to greet Charlie. As is standard in every prison when receiving a 'difficult' inmate, a group of some twenty or so of the biggest screws are mustered to meet the van. As soon as we left the vehicle they surrounded us and all gave Charlie the standard stares in an attempt to intimidate him from the start. When we arrived in the seg unit, Charlie asked to be put into the strong box as he just wanted to get on with his time here without any aggravation. He had no sooner gone into the cell than the reception committee's leader screamed the standard welcome in which he pointed out, in no uncertain terms, that if he even looked at one of his staff the wrong way he would get the kicking of his life. He also made it perfectly clear that he would get fuck all during his stay at Bristol, unlike what he had become used to at Belmarsh.

I heard this speech and felt great sadness for a man who I had grown to respect a great deal over the previous few weeks. I was in no position to do anything, but I was confident in my friend's ability to do hard time when he had to. With our paperwork signed it was time for us to leave, but not before I pushed past the mass of screws surrounding Charlie to shake his hand and tell him to keep his head down.

The following is a letter I sent for the attention of the parole board on Charlie's behalf, after the judge at his appeal at the Old Bailey in 2004 directed that the parole board must set a release date for him. I am unsure whether the letter ever reached the board, but I was asked by Charlie himself if I could send a letter documenting my views and experiences. I have met some really nasty pieces of work in my time both in and out of prison, most of whom will be released within a fraction of the time Charlie has served behind bars. Comparing Charlie with some of these people, I strongly believe he deserves the chance to be released and I am convinced he will use his experiences to help young people today realize what a waste of their lives it is to spend years in prison missing out on so much that life has to offer as he has.

"To Whom It May Concern:

I first heard of Charlie Bronson during my first two weeks' training for the Prison Service at HMP Wandsworth. He was described as almost a 'mythical monster' by a number of older prison officers, Most of whom claimed to have "rolled around the floor" and "got the better of him" in a boastful manner as if to try to impress the new recruits, at the same time exaggerating stories to make us fearful of this man, who they branded the most dangerous man in the prison system. These stories were continued when we arrived at the Prison Service college, where a certain element of instructors again were obviously out to impress us with their accounts of how they "beat up Charlie" and "taught him not to mess with them". I quickly realized that these men had probably never even seen Charlie, much like the men in the army who had been shot by snipers in Northern Ireland but had never in fact been to the country. All these stories did ,however, convince many new recruits and many therefore had already formed a biased opinion of Charlie without even meeting him. They were under the impression that this man had to be attacked on sight before he got the opportunity to attack them.

I first met Charlie in person at the secure unit at HMP Belmarsh in 1994. I must admit I was nervous about the initial meeting as I had only heard the Prison Service side of his story. The first time I met Charlie I noticed that he was probably as nervous as I was, as this was his first time in Belmarsh and he was unsure of the reception he would receive. Putting on a brave face, I had a nervous first meeting but pushed aside the stories and decided to form my own opinion of the man behind the myth. I quickly built a working relationship with Charlie and within a day or two we had formed a good bond of trust between us. For the month or so that followed I heard his side of the story, which I believed to be genuine as he never denied doing some bad things whilst in prison, but I appreciated he was only reacting to some of the brutal treatment he had received over the years. He felt remorse for his actions and even at that early stage wanted the chance to prove he could change. I was surprised to discover what a great personality he had, bearing in mind the years of solitary confinement he had endured. He had feelings, needs, and a sense of humour and was highly intelligent and talented. I enjoyed games of scrabble, helping him with exercise routines and even sat alone in his cell enjoying cups of tea, which he made me! I was of course aware that he had taken hostages in the past, but I never felt threatened in any way at any time when I was working with Charlie. There were still officers who would try to wind him up in an attempt to get a name for themselves so they could brag that they had wound Charlie Bronson up. As I have mentioned, Charlie will openly admit that he has done some bad things while in prison, but he was sucked into a system that almost needed a myth like Charlie to use as an instructional tool for its new recruits. Yes he has taken hostages, damaged prison property and tried to fight the system in the past, but he has only reacted to years of mental and physical torture by an element of bully-boy prison staff.

Since leaving the Prison Service I have kept in touch with Charlie and have met some of his friends, including his wife Saira who has done so much to keep Charlie focused in recent years. Over the past few years he has achieved so much when even now the Prison Service has tried to deny him many of his basic allowances. He appreciates that he will need a pre-release programme, but is as confident as I am that given the opportunity to do this he will react positively as I found he did when I worked with him. He is in my opinion not a danger to anyone. He has got so much more in his life now: his wife and her daughter, whom he loves very much, his friends like Andy Jones, who has offered him full-time employment in his museum, his writing and artwork for which he has won many well-deserved awards. He loves children and has done much for charity including setting up his own children's charity. There are far more dangerous prisoners in the system that have been released or are on softer regimes than Charlie. He has psychiatric reports, which all counteract the Prison Service reports, to state that he is completely sane and focused. All he needs is a chance to prove that he is a different man and is capable of leaving prison and leading a normal life. He could do so much to educate the younger generation of the dangers of wasting your life in prison. My personal experiences of Charlie have all been good with no exceptions; I have never felt threatened by him and would be more than happy to sign a declaration taking responsibility for him on his release. Both he and his family will always be welcome at my home. I would have absolutely no reason to feel he would be a danger to my family or me any more than I feel he would be a danger to others. He deserves a chance to prove himself and if given that chance I know he will do it to the very best of his ability.