Notorious lag Charles Bronson cleared of attempted GBH — and it’s the first time in his life a jury has acquitted him
The 66-year-old armed robber praised the British justice system via video link as he heard the not guilty verdict
BRITAIN'S most violent prisoner Charles Bronson was yesterday cleared by a jury of attempted GBH - for the first time in his life.
Bronson, 66, was accused of attacking Mark Docherty after he banned him from keeping snaps of his wedding to ex-Corrie actress Paula Williamson, 38.
Wakefield jail boss Mr Docherty said Bronson went for him, yelling: "I'll bite your f*****g nose off" before being dragged off by prison guards. But armed robber Bronson, locked up for 44 years for repeated attacks on jailers, insisted he was trying to give him a "gentle bear hug".
He told jurors: "For once in my life I really am an innocent man."
Bronson, who uses the name Charles Salvador, appeared via video link from top security Frankland Prison and danced a jig with his arms held aloft as the jury returned a not guilty verdict. The judge Tom Bayliss QC asked him: “You’re pleased with that Mr Salvador and you are discharged on this.”
He replied: “British Justice, best in the world. Thank you.”
Bronson had previously described his four day trial at Leeds Crown Court as "the biggest farce probably in prison history". Bronson, who represented himself, told the court: "I put my hands up, I have been a very nasty man in my time.
"But when I went into the room there was nothing in my mind whatsoever to attack the governor. I was going to grab him and give him a bear hug, a gentle one, not a hard one, and I was going to whisper in his ear ‘where’s my wife’s photographs?’ I believe staff over-reacted and I can understand why."
He went for the governor on January 25 moments after dancing on his toes and whistling the theme tune to ‘The Great Escape’. Bronson first entered the prison system in 1968 aged 16. In 1974 he was caged for armed robbery.
He was later certified criminally insane in 1978 and treated with drugs in Parkhurt, Broadmoor, Rampton and Ashworth. He had taken 11 hostages in nine sieges, and caused £5m of damage to nine prison roofs.
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He and estranged wife Paula - who wed in November last year - are in the process of getting a divorce.
Bronson has 17 convictions for 40 offences stretching back to 1971 when he was a teen.
His last conviction was for ABH in 2014 which also involved a prison governor at WoodHill nick in Milton Keynes.
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