Boris Becker, the former Wimbledon champion, has described what life is like inside HMP Wandsworth, the prison where Russell Brand is currently held after being sentenced to 10 and a half years in jail.
On Monday, Brand was convicted of raping one of his fans and sexually assaulting three TV and radio workers during his rise to international fame. The judge at the sentencing hearing told Brand that he harboured a "casual arrogant disregard to any woman's right to say no to you", while his fame meant he believed "you could act when you liked and how you liked".
Brand will be on the sex offenders' register for life and must serve at least seven years of his sentence behind bars before being considered for release on licence. He will initially be spending his term at HMP Wandsworth Prison, where Becker served eight months of his two-and-a-half-year jail sentence after being found guilty of hiding millions of pounds worth of assets after declaring himself bankrupt.
Becker's account of Wandsworth
The former world number one, who won Wimbledon three times, was sentenced in 2022 and was sent to Wandsworth before being transferred to HM Prison Huntercombe. He described his stay in Wandsworth as "torture", adding he was "caged with psychopaths".
Becker, 58, disclosed what it was like in his book Inside, following his release from jail. "You can't sleep because all of it is true," he said of the rumours before he was sent down. "In jail people do kill themselves, people do harm themselves and people do go crazy.
"It's the harsh reality when you have never been to prison and that's what your lawyers don't tell you before – maybe not to scare you. HMP Wandsworth is probably one of the toughest prisons in the UK so to be put in there was quite a shock."
Life behind bars
Recalling the first few nights behind bars, he wrote: "This is torture. Surviving it all is an impossibility. I'm in a cage with a bunch of psychopaths. I'm alone and I'm lost." He added in the book: "Time is your enemy inside because the clock ticks very slowly. It's 22 hours a day inside a tiny cell and that's hard."
Ultimately, Becker added, he came to terms with being locked up and took responsibility for the actions that landed him there. "In hindsight, it was probably very good for me to stand still for a long time, and 231 days is quite a long time. To truly understand what happened to me before, to put the dance together of what happened, was a relief. But it doesn't happen overnight.
"You have to take real accountability and a cell life gives you that opportunity. I like to think I'm a pretty bright guy and eventually, you start thinking about the whys, ifs and whens of all that happened. Three years later, the reason I'm doing well is because I took full accountability for the good and bad I did."
Warning from former inmate
A former inmate of Wandsworth, who was released last year, told The Sun that Brand would be a "dead man walking" inside the prison. The former inmate said: "If Brand stays in Wandsworth, he's in real trouble – a dead man walking.
"He won't be there permanently but needs to survive until he's got his permanent move. Wandsworth is violent, corrupt, dirty and noisy. He will be so far out of his comfort zone."
