UK’s most notorious inmate Charles Bronson ’laughed as he watched lags beat up paedo’
Ex-mobster Stephen Gillen has recalled what his life was like behind bars in HMP Wakefield alongside Charles Bronson - one of the UK’s longest-serving prisoners
A reformed gangster who struck up a friendship with Charles Bronson revealed that he gained his respect after he beat up a sadistic "nonce".
Stephen Gillen, who operated in London’s East End criminal underworld for 30 years, was banged up in a Category A jail with the notorious criminal. The pair, who first met in HMP Wandsworth, "connected as soldiers might in the trenches." They strengthened their bond in HMP Wakefield after Stephen brutally attacked a paedophile when staff turned a blind eye in the yard. Bronson applauded him after he beat up the sex offender, whom Stephen labelled a "real monster".
Bronson is said to have "laughed his head off" as he taunted the "nonce" for being given "two black eyes" by the ex-mobster, who managed to dodge death over 100 times until the law caught up with him. However, Bronson, who was first imprisoned for armed robbery and wounding, wasn’t the only notorious criminal that Stephen crossed paths with. He spent 18 years of his life behind bars rubbing shoulders with the likes of helicopter hijacking mob boss, Sid Draper, Brink’s-Mat robber, Michael McAvoy, Bill ’the Bomb’ Williams and a slew of other mafia and organised crime figures. In his latest book, Extraordinary: The Search of a Life Worth Living, Stephen reflects on his "hell" inside and reflects on an incident with a "nonce" in 1997.
Charles Bronson built a reputation as a violent and dangerous inmate ( Image: PA)
He writes: "At one time, me and Charlie (Bronson) were together in Wakefield Prison with a nonce in the cell next to mine. He was a sadist and he loved to play it up. I’d tell him through the walls between us: ’See you, skinny boy, when I get my hands on you I’m going to break you like a plate.’ He’d taunt me back thinking the screws wouldn’t dare put him in the same yard as me, but he was in for a shock. The screws, as twisted as they were in Wakefield, despised him as much as we did, so they left me to it, which whilst perhaps not right, worked for me. One morning we headed out to the yard, there were two gated arches, one to the right and one to the left.
"We usually went through the right gate since the cages were to the left, and that’s where Charlie was so we had the opportunity to chat. That morning though, as soon as we stepped out, I noticed that all of the screws were there. They opened the right door for the nonce and as soon as he saw me, his eyes filled with terror. I gave a nasty smile and said: ’This is brilliant, let’s end this charade today.’"
Stephen said he listened for the clang of the gates behind him, reports Daily Star. "As soon as they did, I walked over to him and bang! Bang! I laid into him, putting him down on the floor, shouting obscenities as I did. Like most nonces, he was all mouth, could only feel big when his prey was smaller and weaker than him. It didn’t take much but I laid into him quick and hard."
Charles Bronson was first sentenced for armed robbery ( Image: PA)
Stephen adds: "Honestly, it was one of the best things I’ve ever done as he was a real monster...The little victories were what kept me going. I felt this one major, it kept me going for weeks." Stephen said Bronson was "in stitches the entire time" and "couldn’t contain himself." He wrote: "The next day, the nonce had two big black eyes and Charlie, chucking things at him from the window kept shouting: ’You’ve got two big black eyes like a panda. Stephen gave you a right good going over."
"Charlie then turned to me, laughing and he yelled: ’Stephen, well done. Look at the state of him.’ Laughing his head off again." During Stephen’s 18 years behind bars, he crossed paths several times with Bronson. He continued: "Charlie was an individual of many layers, his comedy a beacon in the dreariness of incarceration. We’d spend hours engaged in conversation, his tales of Broadmoor and various exploits painting a vivid tableau of his life," Stephen writes.
"His humour was as sharp as it was dark...yet his temperament was mercurial, capable of swift and drastic change, though I was never on the receiving end...Charlie’s intensity was such that he seemed ever poised to pounce, to bend iron doors with sheer will to reach those he targeted. He was one of the fittest men I’ve ever seen. He would train constantly... he was like an old strong man at the circus, and he talks like that too. Camaraderie was solid from the outset and has remained so throughout the years. On occasion, I receive cards from him wishing me well, which I treasure." Stephen, who has now transformed his life, said: "When I get a card from Charlie or there’s some mention of the past, it has a way of fleetingly taking me right back.
"But I’m a completely different person now, I feel like I’ve lived three lives so I’ve had to compartmentalise these parts of my life and the people, places and things in them. When it comes to thinking of Charlie and things like that, it brings up sadness of such a waste of so much." Stephen was involved in heists, police shootouts and brutal fights during his career. Flitting in and out of jail since the age of 14, it was 1991 when a 22-year-old Stephen was given a 17-year sentence for his involvement in a crime operation that was thwarted by cops. He moved prisons 25 times before eventually being released in 2003.
Once free, he decided to turn his life around and became a successful author and TV personality having just finished filming a series about the mafia with Ross Kemp, which is set to air in May. His book, The Monkey Puzzle Tree, which details his upbringing and his entrance into the world of crime, is set to be turned into a £30m feature film. His plight also inspired the character, Finn in the TV series Gangs of London. Stephen was nominated for an International Peace Prize and even visited the United Nations. The 53-year-old later became CEO of Roar Media Creative, a media and marketing firm and now helps others reform against gang life.
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