Charles Bronson: Eight facts you didn't know about Britain's most notorious prisoner

Britain's most notorious prisoner Charles Bronson smeared himself with butter and attacked 12 prison officers - moments after Arsenal won the FA cup.

The 61-year-old 'had another rumble' at Full Sutton Prison in York where he is serving a life sentence for robbery and kidnap.

The Tottenham Hotspur fan became incensed when rivals Arsenal beat Hull City at Wembley on May 17, according to a letter written to friend Kate Kray - the ex-wife of gangster Ronnie Kray - obtained by the Mirror.

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He wrote how he covered himself in Lurpak to make it harder for officers to catch him.

The attack against officers in riot gear left him with broken ribs.

Bronson has spent the last 40 years behind bars - except for four months and nine days between crimes - and has earned the reputation of being Britain's most violent prisoner.

Here's how he earned his notorious reputation:

1. His first taste of life behind bars came in 1974, at the age of 22, when he was imprisoned for seven years for an armed robbery of a Post Office in Little Sutton. He stole £26.18.

2. Charles Bronson was born Michael Gordon Peterson in 1952. He changed his name on the advice of his fight promoter, Paul Edmonds, during his short-lived career as a bare-knuckle boxer in 1987. During his time in the ring he reportedly killed a rottweiler with his bare hands.

3. Since first entering prison forty years ago, Bronson has spent just four months out of custody and 36 of those years in solitary confinement.

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4. Bronson has taken hostages on 10 different occasions. The most notorious was in 1996 when he took two Iraqi hijackers and another inmate hostage at Belmarsh prison in London. He instructed them to call him 'General' and to tickle his feet. He demanded a getaway helicopter to Cuba, two sub-machine guns, 5,000 rounds of ammunition and an axe - and warned negotiators he would eat one of his victims should his demands not be met. The episode ended when he slashed himself with a razor.

5. During his time in prison he has cultivated a keen interest in painting. His surrealist drawings have been sold for up to £1,000 and displayed in galleries across London. The peculiar pieces depict prison officers in violent scenarios. His artworks have won 11 awards from the Koestler Trust, a prison arts charity - and one was even displayed at Angel Tube station in London.

6. In 1999 while he was incarcerated at HMP Hull he took art teacher Phil Danielson hostage for 44 hours after he criticised one of his sketches. He was given a life sentence.

7. Bronson's muscular appearance is thanks to a regimented workout which includes more than 2,000 press ups a day.

8. He met his first wife Irene in 1971 with whom he had a son, Michael Jonathan, a year later. They divorced five years later. Bronson found love again in 2001 with Fatema Saira Rehman, who saw a picture of the prisoner in the newspaper and began a correspondence. Following their wedding he briefly converted to Islam and changed his name for the second time to Charles Ali Ahmed. After four years of marriage the couple divorced and he renounced the religion and his new name.