The UK’s longest serving female prisoner is going to walk free from prison after spending almost 39 years behind bars and below we take a look at other infamous lags who have spent decades locked up12:49, 01 Jul 2026Updated 13:06, 01 Jul 2026It was revealed this week that the UK’s longest serving female prisoner is going to walk free from prison — after spending almost 39 years behind bars.‌Maria Pearson was told the news after the Parole Board approved her release. The killer was jailed after she stabbed Janet Newton 17 times in the chest and left the victim lying in a pool of blood. Janet had just got engaged to Maria’s ex-boyfriend and she was murdered in a jealous rage in 1986.‌However, Maria’s 10th review to the Parole Board has proved a success, and a statement read: “The panel was satisfied that imprisonment was no longer necessary for the protection of the public and that she poses no more than a minimal risk of further serious offending.”‌With this in mind, below we look at the top five longest serving prisoners in the UK.1. Robert Maudsley (52 years)Robert Maudsley has been known as being Britain’s real-life Hannibal Lecter and he is famous for spending 40 years unbroken inside ‘Monster Mansion’ HMP Wakefield — before he was moved last year.‌He is Britain’s longest serving prisoner and he was first locked up for taking the life of builder John Farrell in 1974.Maudsley was 21 at the time and he went on to brutally slaughter two prisoners inside Wakefield. These murders came after he tortured a patient to death inside Broadmoor.According to reports, he was given the nickname Hannibal the Cannibal after a rumour spread about him eating the brains of one victim. However, despite this being disproved, the nickname continued to stick.‌His nephew spoke on a podcast last year where he revealed the child abuse his uncle had endured, and he said: “You will be hard pushed to find someone who can’t empathise with what he has been through. I always say, nobody is born a serial killer, there is certain things to happen in one’s life for it to end up in that place.”Maudsley has spent most of his life in a solitary cell - said to be a perspex box - after carrying out his own version of vigilante justice.2. Charles Bronson (52 years)‌Charles Bronson has been in prison for almost as long as Robert Maudsley and despite having never killed anybody, he has gained a reputation for being the UK’s most violent lag.This was after a number of incidents behind bars but it was in 1974 when he was first locked up for armed robbery.And speaking about what Bronson was like in prison, Noel ‘Razor Smith, who committed over 200 robberies, said last year: “I love Charlie. He’s a good friend of mine. Charlie was like our weapon in the 80s and 90s in the prison system. Everyone liked him because he attacked the screws.”‌Bronson, also now known as Charles Salvador, was given a discretionary life sentence in 2000 after taking a prison teacher hostage for 44 hours.He has made several appeals since then but none were successful.Asked if he would ever be free, as we have now seen with Maria Pearson, his pal ‘Razor’ replied: “I think they will do the same to him as they done to Reggie Kray, when he is infirm and dying, they will let him out for his last couple weeks or so.”‌3. John ‘Bruce’ Childs (47 years)Serial killer John ‘Bruce’ Childs is regarded as being ‘Britain’s most prolific hitman’ — and he has spent some 47 years in prison.He received a life-sentence in 1980 after he confessed to the police that he murdered six people — including the 10-year-old child of one victim.‌The East Londoner will never be released because he is serving a whole-life tariff and crime correspondent Jeff Edwards once interviewed the killer and he said he had an “extraordinary penchant for violence”.He remains one of the most mysterious murderers in British history and despite being convicted of the so-called contract killings, none of the bodies of his victims have ever been found.4. Jeremy Bamber (41 years)‌Jeremy Bamber, now 64, is one of the most well known inmates in Britain — after one of the most shocking massacres in the country’s history.He was convicted of executing his adoptive parents, his sister, and her six-year-old twin boys after shooting them all dead in what became known as the White House Farm murders in Essex.Bamber, who was 24 at the time of the murders in August 1985, has continued to plead his innocence behind bars.‌Last month, we reported how the lawyer who overturned the wrongful conviction of Andrew Malkinson said the Bamber case “bears all the hallmarks” of a miscarriage of justice.Appeal lawyer Emily Bolton said new evidence has come to light which was not presented during the original trial.She said: “This evidence should have been in front of the jury – and it was not. For that reason, the conviction must be quashed.”‌Bamber’s team are now planning to submit a report to demand that the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) review their original objection and refer the case.5. Maria PearsonAs mentioned above, the longest serving female prisoner is Maria Pearson, and as it stands, she is the fifth longest serving lag in Britain.Article continues belowShe will soon be released on licence under strict conditions including wearing an electronic tag for a year and avoiding contact with her victim’s family.However, the news will not have been welcomed by Janet Newton’s loved ones, and ahead of the hearing, her sister Lynn asked the Parole Board not to grant her release.She once told the Mirror: “She is not only Britain’s longest female prisoner but Britain’s most dangerous female prisoner as well.”