Charles Bronson: £26 and fifty years inside

One robbery in 1974 changed a life forever — and created the man the tabloids called Britain's most dangerous prisoner.

In 1974, a young man named Michael Peterson was convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to seven years in prison. The robbery was a minor job — the amount involved was later reported as £26. He was released in 1987, and by then the man who came out was not Michael Peterson at all.

During his first sentence, Peterson had attacked prisoners and prison officers, been moved from prison to prison, and built a reputation for violence that preceded him everywhere. He was placed in the psychiatric units at Rampton and Broadmoor, where he spent years.

After his release in 1987 he began a short career in bare-knuckle boxing in the East End of London. His promoter, deciding that the name Peterson lacked menace, suggested he adopt the name of the actor Charles Bronson. The name stuck — and with it, a legend was born.

Within a year Bronson was back inside, this time for robbery and grievous bodily harm. What followed was a cycle that would define the rest of his life: release, reoffend, return. Each time he was inside he added to his record — hostage-taking, rooftop protests, attacks on staff — and each time his sentence grew longer.

At one point he held a prison art teacher hostage for 44 hours, demanding a helicopter and a cup of tea. He has taken hostages more than ten times in total, and has spent more of his life in solitary confinement than almost any prisoner in England.

Bronson changed his name by deed poll to Charles Salvador, after the artist Salvador Dalí, and has become a prolific painter, selling his work for thousands of pounds. Now in his seventies, he remains in custody — one of the longest-held prisoners in England, and a story that began with a £26 robbery.