Robber Bronson to beg for his freedom

The premiere next Tuesday of Bronson - a biopic about Britain's most notorious prisoner, Charles Bronson - will be accompanied by a plea from its subject asking that he be released from jail.

Bronson was first imprisoned in 1974 for a Post Office robbery and - largely due to a series of violent attacks on prison staff – has spent all but 86 days since in various high security institutions. He recorded his premiere message – in which he admits that he was “a nasty bastard, a horrible, violent, nasty man” - in Wakefield Prison, where he has been held in solitary confinement for a decade.

But he goes on to claim that he's a changed man. "I've grown up, I've matured, I'm a different man. I'm now anti-violent. I'm anti-drugs, anti-crime, but I'm still held in a cage in solitary. I'm not a murderer, I'm not a rapist, I'm not a paedophile. I'm a hostage of my own past," he says, adding that he is a "political prisoner" in an "evil, corrupt penal system".

There is no doubt the prison authorities would like to be rid of Bronson, 57, who has timed his message to coincide with his parole board hearing next week. His prison career highlights include taking two Iraqi hijackers hostage in 1998 and telling his negotiators that he would eat one of his victims unless his demands were met.

When this did not happen, he told the prison warders he was "going to start snapping necks" before demanding a getaway helicopter to take him to Cuba, two Uzi sub-machine guns, 5,000 rounds of ammunition and an axe. ·