For years he's claimed to be the long lost son of Britain's most notorious prisoner. But last night George Bamby finally revealed he isn't related to Charles Bronson at all.
Having first announced himself to be the infamous jailbird's offspring on an edition of ITV's This Morning back in 2018, the self-styled 'number one paparazzi photographer' admitted that he'd been faking a family connection the whole time.
Bamby has repeatedly hit the headlines since initially alleging he'd done a DNA test after being contacted by Bronson. He said the now 70-year-old convict had messaged him after seeing his name mentioned in a TV documentary and had sent him clippings from his moustache in order to find out if they were linked by blood.
But last night Bamby admitted that, with Bronson's help, he'd concocted the whole story as a ruse to keep the maximum security detainee in the news. Being interviewed by Vanessa Feltz on Talk TV just hours after it was reported that Bronson had lost his latest bid for freedom, Bamby claimed that the inmate had asked for help in securing him "loads of publicity, to ensure he wasn't forgotten about."
"I've not told anybody this for six years - not even my wife - and it’s been an absolute bane of my life," said Bamby, who confessed to simply having printed a false DNA certificate "from off the internet." He added, "Me and Charlie together made up the story that he was my dad.
"He's not my father - I am a PR agent, a marketing person and the UK’s number one paparazzi. For the last six years we have made loads of money, had loads of fun, created loads of stories, done loads of ridiculous things.
"We've manipulated the media, we've manipulated the prison service. I got into the maximum security facilities in four different prisons... as an (undercover) journalist."
He also stated that a "little pot of cash" from their ventures had been set aside for Bronson via a business consultancy for when he is eventually released. However, the pair fell out in early March after a documentary featuring both of them screened on Channel Four.
Entitled Bronson: Fit to be Free?, it ended with Bamby being asked on camera how he felt about Bronson getting out of jail. His comment that his 'dad' might "stab him with a bread knife" upset the lifer, who was gearing up for his parole hearing at the time.
Bronson - who's been behind bars for almost 50 years - subsequently vowed to have nothing more to do with Bamby. Meanwhile, Bamby claimed the comment had been taken out of context and blamed the way the show had been edited.
And Bronson's brother Mark Peterson has now come forward to say he'll never forgive his sibling for duping their 92-year-old mother Eira - from Aberystwth - into thinking Bamby was her grandson.
‘It was massively disrespectful of Charlie and Bamby," he told the Daily Mail. "To try and convince her that he was actually her grandson - it's an awful thing to do."
Dubbed one of Britain’s most violent offenders, Bronson was first arrested in 1974 for armed robbery. Only netting £26.18 in the raid, he was given seven years.
Shortly after being released in 1987 he was imprisoned again for planning another hold-up. His behaviour whilst inside this time around - assaulting fellow prisoners and guards, taking hostages and causing significant damage to prison property - has seen him remain incarcerated ever since.
Nevertheless, having changed his surname to Salvador in 2014 - in tribute to the artist Salvador Dali - he now donates his paintings to help various charities and is a staunch anti-knife crime campaigner. At his recent public parole hearing he told the board that he'd had "more porridge than Goldilocks and the Three Bears," adding, "I've had enough, I want to go home."
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