Most dangerous criminals in the UK being given pets behind bars, including budgies and tortoises

Daily Mail​

22-06-2025

The most dangerous criminals in the UK are being given pets behind bars - including budgies and tortoises.
Three high security prisons have gifted animals to inmates as a reward for good behaviour, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) confirmed.
One prisoner at Strangeways - now known as HMP Manchester and one of the UK's largest high security, Category A men's prisons - owns a tortoise.
And two convicts at Yorkshire's HMP Full Sutton and HMP Wakefield respectively - maximum security facilities for some of the country's worst criminals - have a budgie.
The latter is nicknamed Monster Mansion for the infamous inmates incarcerated there over the years, like Ian Huntley, Charles Bronson and Levi Bellfield.
Jeremy Bamber and Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins are currently behind bars at HMP Wakefield.
An MoJ spokesperson said, according to The Sunday Mirror: 'Birds and other pets are provided under an incentive scheme which allows prison Governors to incentivise good behaviour and prevent violence against staff.
'Pets are not allowed in every prison establishment and this would be a local decision made by Governors in accordance with this incentives policy framework.'
Offenders have previously been known to be allowed pets at lower security facilities - but these are the first known reports from higher security sites.
The other five Category A prisons in the country - HMPs Belmarsh, Frankland, Whitemoor, Woodhill and Long Lartin - do not let prisoners keep animals.
Governors can, according to guidance, let well-behaved inmates have 'one bird and one birdcage' if this is also compatible with a given prison's rules.
Tortoises are not mentioned in the regulations around these creature comforts.
Robert Maudsley, known as Hannibal the Cannibal, once asked for a budgie in his specially made solitary underground cell at HMP Wakefield.
The 71-year-old quadruple serial killer wrote to prison governors: 'Why can't I have a budgie instead of the spiders and cockroaches I already have in here?'
He earned his nickname in the press for rumours he ate part of one of his victims' brain - which were later disproven.
Maudsley, often known as the country's most dangerous inmate, added of the proposed budgie in his letter: 'I promise to look after it and not eat it.'
He spent 23 hours a day in his isolated glass cage for more than 40 years.
The killer was incarcerated in it in 1983 after murdering three inmates during stints at Broadmoor Hospital and HMP Wakefield.
But it is unlikely he owns the budgie documented at the Yorkshire facility.
He was moved to HMP Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire in April after a row with staff over his privileges.
Maudsley was refusing food after guards took away personal items like his PlayStation, books and TV.
A HM Prison Service spokesperson said: 'Prison pets are only allowed in specific situations and where approved by the Governor.'