A prison officer who watched over notorious hard-man Charles Bronson has said there was only one inmate who ever made him fear for his life.
George Shipton, a former Belmarsh High Security Unit officer who appeared in Channel 4's hit series 'Banged Up', said that despite his fearsome reputation, he was not worried about being on the receiving end of Bronson's outbursts. The two of them were even able to share a joke together despite his violent record, he revealed. Instead, George claimed his most feared prisoner was an Al-Qaeda terrorist who was jailed after the 9/11 attacks in New York - and had fought police when they tried to bring him in.
According to the Daily Star, George told podcaster Dodge Woodall: "I spent a lot of time with Charlie Bronson. Charlie only responds really to a certain type of officer. You got to take a few risks, which I did on a couple of occasions. There was one occasion where we were going out on the yard. I said 'I'm going to go and take the p*** out of him, and he's going to take the p*** out of me, and we're going to have a good laugh'."
His colleagues warned him against it - but George went on to take a jovial approach. Recalling how it went down, he said: "Charlie's looked at me and said 'You know what you've done now don't you? You've made everyone hate you... and I love that'." However, it was a different inmate who left him fearing for his life when he clocked on for work. The man was said to be second-in-command of Al-Qaeda's European operation - and was regarded one of the most dangerous men in the prison system, despite his small statue.
George Shipton told Dodge Woodall that he spent a 'lot of time with Bronson' and was able to share a joke with him (Dodge Woodall/YouTube)He told the podcast: "I can't say his name but what I will say is that he was the only con where I used to think 'Please God let me get home let me off this shift tonight.' He was half my size, and he couldn't speak a word of English. This geezer was nine stone soaking wet, he was about 30 years of age and he'd been training to be a killing machine in the Afghan camps from about six years of age"
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George also shared the details he had learnt of the man's initial stand-off with police, and said: "He hit one Old Bill in the groin, he told us he couldn't move his leg for over half an hour because the agent knew exactly the pressure point to hit. He escaped he wriggled out of their grip and ran down the stairs in the townhouse.
"He could have got away but he looked in the kitchen, saw the knife block and grabbed a carving knife to go and kill all the old Bill upstairs to save his mates. They had to pull it right through his hand, but he never blinked." George Shipton worked in prisons for 12 years, including a number of different roles at Belmarsh and HMP Whitemoor. Since leaving the service he has worked as a London cab driver, and is also a registered London tour guide.
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