Dark secrets of ‘UK's Guantanamo Bay' where murderers are punished with trips to ‘The Box' & no inmate has EVER escaped
SOME call it the UK's Guantanamo Bay, others know it simply as Hellmarsh.
With a level of security second to none, no prisoner has ever successfully escaped from HMP Belmarsh, but now its most chilling secrets can be revealed - from secret hellhole punishment cells to inmates' brutal games.
9
9
Through accounts of daily routines, brutal fights, gang warfare, drug smuggling and moments of unexpected redemption, my new book uncovers the truth about life inside Hellmarsh.
A former inmate told fellow author Emma French and I: 'HMP Belmarsh is a brutal place, and every movement around the jail is along long internal walkways. Every move you make is monitored.
'It is run by staff who set examples to instill fear into you. They have a saying: 'Treat them as you expect to be treated.'
'If you keep your head down, you will be left alone, but if you are rude then they will target you.
'The Ministry of Justice will of course never admit their prison is run on intimidation with a hard line, but it is.
'To be fair to them, as much as I personally am not a fan of Belmarsh, given the serious nature of some of the offenders' offences, I guess it has to be run in a firm and brutal fashion to keep good order and discipline.'
Belmarsh, in south east London, is the only prison in England and Wales with a 'prison within a prison', otherwise known as the High-Security Unit (HSU).
Surrounded by 20-foot-high concrete walls and monitored by 96 cameras, it's designed to house some of the most dangerous criminals in the country.
While Belmarsh can hold up to 910 men, just 48 can be confined within the HSU at any given time.
The prison also contains a segregation unit and two notorious cells known as The Boxes. These are bleak, windowless isolation rooms with no beds, sinks or toilets.
Over the years, the HSU has held a chilling mix of IRA bombers, KGB spies, al-Qaeda terrorists and even Charles Bronson, whose violent reputation earned him his own private wing.
Yet, despite its Category A prisoners, Belmarsh also functions as a standard prison. Around one in five inmates is a convicted murderer, yet many others serve time for lesser offences.
How do staff balance handling petty criminals alongside serial rapists, terrorists and gang leaders? And what happens when such high-risk individuals are forced to coexist?
As one former Belmarsh inmate put it: 'Over the years, you can be sure that with all the high-profile cases heard at the Central Criminal Court or Woolwich Crown Court, the offenders were detained at HMP Belmarsh.
'Some of whom I have personally met: Mark Dixie (The Sally Anne Bowman case), Steve Wright (The Suffolk Strangler), Stuart Hazell (The Tia Sharp murder in Croydon), Barry George (The Jill Dando case), John Worboys (The Black Cab Rapist).
'Also Wayne Couzens (The Sarah Everard case), Steven Barker (The Baby P case), John Duffy (the 1980s railway killer), Kenny Noye, Ian Huntley (The Soham Murders), and Lea Rusha, Roger Coutts, Stuart Royle, Ermir Hysenaj, and Jetmir Bucpapa, who all pulled the largest cash robbery in UK history – the Securitas robbery in Tonbridge, Kent, in February 2006.'
His list didn't end there, either: ' Terrorists, the London bombers, The Hatton Garden Job crew.
'Many high-profile cases over the years have had the pleasure of experiencing the harsh regime at HMP Belmarsh.'
9
9
'Many were completely messed up'
Former Conservative Cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken served time in Belmarsh after being convicted of perjury and became something of confidante to many lags.
What really struck Jonathan was their vulnerability.
He explained: 'Many were completely messed up. One guy, I found out, should have been released already, but nobody had told him.
'All the time, I felt like I was on the funny farm, yet at the same time, people confided in me.
''Do you think my wife will ever let me back?' or 'How will I ever lift up my head again?'
'I was a middle-class bloke, and there was a lot of agony-aunting. But I did feel I was being of some use.'
A prisoner officer warned the ex MP he was to be moved, saying, 'Aitken, you're going to Beirut.'
Another inmate warned: 'Oh, don't go to Beirut. That's where the real hard men are. If you get on the wrong side of them, they'll crush your balls, mate.'
Aitken added: 'I had no idea what he meant. Eventually, I learned Beirut was just B Wing.
'That night, I heard a ritual called 'doing a quizzy'. Inmates shouted questions across the wing.
"Sometimes they were crude. 'Who'd like to s**g Officer S?'
9
9
'Sometimes they were coded messages. 'Remember to tell the court the car was green.'
'But that night, it was about me. 'What are we gonna do to him?'
'Let's eat his balls!'
'Let's give him a good kicking!'
'It was nasty. They were high on drugs, but it was still terrifying. The threats felt real, and I took them seriously.
'I have never felt more lonely, frightened or vulnerable. I knelt and tried to say a prayer, but I was too scared."
Prison jobs for monsters
9
Some prisoners are allowed to work at Belmarsh. Ex prisoner Mike observed that in his experience, some of the best prison jobs went to the worst people.
He revealed: 'The honour killing. The guy who put his daughter in a suitcase. He made tea for the prison officers at Belmarsh. Some multiple murderers, horrible human beings, get privileges like that.'
He's talking about the case of Mahmod Mahmod, who orchestrated the murder of his own daughter with accomplices including her uncle.
Mike recalled another depraved murderer having a degree of responsibility in Belmarsh, too.
He said: 'The Colindale killer has a funny eye. He had a job giving out milk. He killed a woman on an allotment because he wanted to run the allotment.'
Mike is referring to Rahim Mohammadi, who strangled 80-year-old widow Lea Adri-Soejoko with a lawnmower cable in February 2017 at an allotments plot in London.
I have never felt more lonely, frightened or vulnerable. I knelt and tried to say a prayer, but I was too scared.
Jonathan Aitken
One ex-inmate of several prisons described the exercise yard at Belmarsh as "small and secure, nowhere near the boundary fence.
'No spur (wing) mixes with another spur on exercise. The surrounding fence and wall are huge with razor wire running around the top, CCTV watching your every move.
'If you stop and bend down to pick something up off the floor you are challenged there and then.
'This is even after the exercise yard was previously checked and searched by staff prior to the inmates even going out on the yard.
'I guess a testament to their paranoid security measures. There are posters on the walls throughout the prison warning staff. They state, 'Believe nothing, check everything, keep calm and carry on.''
Former officer Nik said of the meals served up: 'The food was grim. But sometimes we ate it. Some of the curries were actually okay.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
22 minutes ago
- BBC News
Ludgate Hill phone snatcher caught with DNA from lost shoe
A phone snatcher has been convicted after DNA from a shoe he lost during a theft in the City of London linked him to the Duarte, 28, was tackled off his e-bike by members of the public after he stole a handset from a victim's hand in Ludgate Hill on 7 August last year - losing a trainer in the struggle. He was captured on CCTV wearing one shoe after he managed to get sent the trainer for DNA analysis and found the thief's profile on the national of Saffron Walden, Essex, appeared at Inner London Crown on Monday where he admitted one count of theft. He is due to be sentenced in September. 'The slipper fitted our Cinderella' Physical forensics manager Andrew Walker, of the City of London Police, said: "We were able to get sufficient levels of DNA from the shoe to obtain a single, major profile that was suitable for searching against the national DNA search generated a "hit" to a man whose profile had previously been uploaded, Mr Walker explained."The slipper fitted our Cinderella and we were able to bring him before the courts."
The Guardian
26 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Police warn of SMS scams as ‘blaster' is used to send thousands of texts
A portable phone mast that blitzes every nearby mobile phone with credible-looking scam text messages is the latest weapon being used by fraudsters. The 'SMS blaster' lets criminals send out texts without the need for them to have obtained the victims' numbers and without being stopped by the phone networks' anti-spam measures. Mobiles are tricked into connecting with the blaster on a fake 2G network, instead of with a legitimate phone tower. This week in the UK, a man was jailed for more than a year for using a blaster in the boot of his car to send out fraudulent messages. Ruichen Xiong, a student from China, drove around London using the tool between 22 and 27 March 2025, sending messages to tens of thousands of potential victims. A text received on a police officer's phone as they went to arrest him claimed to be from HM Revenue and Customs and asked for details to process a refund. SMS blasters are a relatively new technology for scammers – police in the UK only encountered them for the first time last year when they made arrests in Manchester and London. In New Zealand, the first arrest for using one was made last summer, and there have been cases in other countries, including Thailand. When used in busy built-up areas, they allow criminals to easily send out 'smishing' messages to hundreds of people at a time, without being blocked by mobile phone providers. The messages typically have a link and ask people to follow it and hand over personal details. These are then harvested by the fraudsters and used to make payments or for other scams. The SMS blaster allows scammers to control every part of the message, so they can make it look like it has come from a genuine organisation. Xiong drove around the Greater London area in a black Honda CR-V with the blaster in the boot. He was arrested by the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPCU), a police unit sponsored by the banking industry and focusing on financial fraud. Det Ch Insp Paul Curtisat the DCPCU said: 'Criminals are sophisticated and will continuously make attempts to bypass fraud prevention measures designed to protect consumers. 'They'll make every attempt to steal personal and financial information, so it's important that customers are alert to potential threats of fraud, particularly text messages.' Google advises Android phone users to disable 2G on their device to avoid the attacks; iPhone users can filter messages from unknown contacts. In the US and UK, mobile users can forward suspicious messages to 7726 to be investigated.
The Guardian
26 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Man who developed psychosis after being jailed for 13 years on indefinite sentence moved to hospital
A prisoner driven to psychosis after being jailed for more than a decade under an indeterminate sentence has finally been moved to a hospital for a treatment after a six-year battle by his family and supporters. Thomas White was sentenced to a minimum of two years in custody under the imprisonment for public protection (IPP) scheme in 2012 for stealing a mobile phone, but remains in prison over a decade later. His family said the undefined nature of his sentence, and spending years in prison without a release date, caused White to develop serious mental health problems, and he was eventually diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. 'He just started to get sicker and sicker – the present system is definitely psychiatric abuse,' his sister, Clara White, said. 'Without a doubt, he would have died in prison. He was dying. He was dying in front of us. We could see it. But now he has a chance of survival.' She said the family found out last Wednesday that White will be transferred to a medium secure mental health hospital, a move they have been fighting for since 2019. He is currently living on the hospital ward on HMP Manchester. 'I did cry. It was unbelievable. It was, oh my word, we've achieved what we've set out to do. I called my family, my mum, and there were tears in every family home,' she said. 'This is the first time that he's actually going to be cared for properly. Unfortunately he'll probably be there for many years. He's still under the IPP though. The stain of IPP has not been removed from him.' Clara White said her brother had no history of mental health problems before his imprisonment, but his health deteriorated drastically in 2016 after four years in prison with no end in sight. He started wearing his bedsheets as clothes, claiming he could hear voices through the air vents of the cells, and 'speaking in Roman numerals' down the phone. On one occasion when his mother visited him in prison, she had to ask a prison officer to identify him for her. 'For a mum to not recognise her son, that's how bad it was. He was disheveled. He'd lost half of his body weight,' Clara White said. 'His mind had been broken. Thomas spent inhumane periods in segregation. So he was alone with no human contact with his Bible talking to himself. I think somewhere along the line, something broke in Thomas and never repaired again.' She added that in the 13 and a half years he had been in custody, he had been moved between 13 different prisons, with his family sometimes having to drive for many hours to visit him. White's case was previously highlighted by a UN torture expert as 'emblematic of the psychological harm' caused by indeterminate sentences. IPP sentences were banned 12 years ago (four months after White's sentencing), but more than 2,000 people are still in prison serving an IPP sentence and at least 90 IPP prisoners have taken their own lives. The Labour peer Tony Woodley has introduced a private member's bill to resentence prisoners still under IPP sentences, but after decades of campaigning, many have little faith it will result in change any time soon. 'I've got so much respect for Lord Woodley trying to get rid of IPP sentences but do I think that will happen? No. And I'm absolutely glad we went down the hospital route because my brother wouldn't have lasted much longer waiting for a bill to go through,' Clara White said. She has been supported by the pastor Mick Fleming, from Church on the Street, who has highlighted White's case in his latest book, Walk In My Shoes. The pair plan to continue fighting on behalf of other IPP prisoners, and to get White's IPP sentence removed. 'We're not going to walk away and forget about the others, hundreds of other people need help,' she said. 'Thomas doesn't hope. He doesn't know what hope is anymore. He thinks that they're going to change their mind and keep him in prison. That's what IPP does to someone.'
