Former Bristol City right-back Bradley Orr has opened up on his time in jail, including a run-in with a convicted murderer 'The Swindon Butcher' and how his time on the inside helped kick-start his career on the field.
Orr, now 39, was one of three City players to be charged with affray alongside Steve Brooker and David Partridge in 2006 following a brawl in a Bristol nightclub one year prior. Partridge was handed a two-month sentence with Brooker and Orr both receiving 28 days.
Just five days prior to his sentence, Orr was sent off in a league game against Northampton for headbutting teammate and City legend Louis Carey in front of the Sky cameras.
Speaking on podcast Undr The Cosh alongside former strikers Jon Parkin, Chris Brown and writer Chris Brown, Orr went into detail surrounding events leading up to the night in question including how a shocking run of form in the league led Carey to round up the troops for a night out.
Orr says: "To cut a long story short there ends up being a big fight and it came down to Parto (Partridge). The doorman was just kicking him everywhere.
"We tried to get in and stop the fight and there ended up being just this big melee in a nightclub in Bristol. Fast forward a year, we've been arrested, charged and affray on that night.
"In my head, I was thinking 'I've been arrested for trying to stop a fight a year ago.' We went right down into one of the holding cells and then the prison vans, we were right in it. It was a proper shock to the system looking back now but a proper experience looking back. It was just a funny experience."
Orr had only been in jail for two days when he ended up being chased around the gym by a man doing a 35-year sentence for killing both his parents.
He recalls: "Every wing gets an hour a day in the gym, but we could be in there all day. The following day, he was a gym screw, who worked for the prison but runs the gym his name was Mark Pullman. He said just do as you're told, listen to me and you'll be fine.
"He comes to me and says 'do me a favour, go and tell him there on the treadmill he's got five minutes to get dressed, showered and out of here and into the visiting room or else he's going to lose his visit. His mum and dad have been waiting there for two hours for him.'
"I go 'excuse me mate you've got five minutes to get out and into the visiting room or else you're going to lose your visit.' He's like 'what visit?' So I said 'your mum and dad have been there for two hours, you've got to go.'
"He pushes the emergency stop button on the treadmill and just shouts 'what did you say?!' There's no one else in the gym, I've looked around and Pully's gone. He's walking towards me shouting 'what have you just said?!'
"He starts running after me, the blood is drained out of me. I'm shouting 'Pully'. It felt like it was a five-minute chase but it was probably 10 seconds. Pully comes out and grabs this guy called Clarkey and he says 'Clarkey, I'm only having a laugh take it easy.'
Pully said to me 'he's doing 35 years, he'll never get out of here. He took the arms and legs and heads of his own mum and dad.' I'm like 'you're joking aren't you?' He's like 'no, that's the Swindon Butcher.'
"I was like jelly. He used to get fan mail, he's all over the internet. He's one of the scariest looking creatures you'll ever see and he's chasing me all around this prison gym on day two. It was just a mad experience."
Following Orr's release, he spent around four weeks out of the side before earning back his spot at right-back under Gary Johnson who stuck by him during his time in jail. City went on to earn promotion to the Championship with a second-place finish and almost pulled off heroic back-to-back promotions if it wasn't for Dean Windass' winner in the play-off final against Hull a year later.
Orr was integral in City's push for the Premier League, featuring 38 times across the campaign that also saw him named in the Championship PFA Team of the Year.
Speaking of how he changed his attitude upon his release, Orr admitted prison was a real eye-opener and provided him with the motivation to knuckle down to become 'the best right-back outside of the Premier League.'
He added: "I came out like a man possessed, I stopped drinking and proper got my head down and thought right 'I really need to have a go now'. I went on a run where I scored six or seven that season from full-back, got promoted and from then got in the Team of the Year.
"Looking back, that incident and stint in jail made me. As I say, those things that happen in your life for a reason. I was devastated at the time but looking back now I wouldn't change it for the world because it definitely spurred me on from the time I got out.
"It took me about three or four weeks to get back into the team and then once I was in the side I just kicked right on.
"We got promoted, and the following season we should have won the Championship but got beat in the play-off final but for that time for a good two or three-year spell and without sounding big-headed I was probably the best right full-back outside of the Premier League."
Orr went on to make 255 appearances for the Robins over six seasons before leaving for Queens Park Rangers in 2010 where he achieved promotion at the first time of asking. Opportunities in the Premier League were hard to come by and he eventually joined Blackburn before having loan spells with Ipswich, Blackpool and eventually Toronto before hanging up his boots.
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