JONATHAN Aitken says Boris Becker will emerge from his prison shame a “better human being”.

The former Tory MP turned Reverend who was jailed 18 months for perverting the course of justice also offered advice to how the German could survive his first few days behind bars.

Speaking to GB News, Rev Aitken, 79, said: “I think I’d say, don’t be afraid, prison is tough, your first day is probably one of the worst days of your life, but you’ve done something wrong, the courts have sentenced you and you’ve got to get on with it. And the way to get on with it is to first of all, go with the flow of planet prison, which is a pretty extraordinary place when you first arrive there with its own rituals and customs, and a lot of them are quite difficult.

“On the other hand, I think he may be pleasantly surprised to find that there are some positives. The milk of human kindness very often flows strongly through a prison wing. He’ll be received in a friendly way by his fellow inmates, I would guess, and I think that the prison staff are very experienced and very good, especially to new arrivals, so it won’t be all bad.
“And he’s a tough and resilient character. He will get through it.”

Commenting on the reception he will likely receive at HMP Wandsworth, Aitken added: “I don’t expect he’ll have any very nasty surprises, and I think he may have some positive surprises if he keeps his head down, doesn’t become a tall poppy who throws his weight around, but just realises that all men are equal in a prison uniform.

You’ve just got to keep your head down, take it slowly, and he’s not going to be in there for very long. He, I think, will only serve just over a year of his sentence before being released on licence and perhaps on a tag. So, he’ll be able to cope with it being the resilient character I think he is. He’s made his mistakes, he’s paying for them, but I don’t think it’s going to be terrible for him.”

Reflecting on his own time behind bars at HMP Pentonville, Aitken added: “I strangely had a positive experience in prison. That’s not to say I liked it at all, I found it difficult, but there were treasures in the darkness and I made some real friends. I thought the system was fair, and on the whole, well run, despite the lack of resources. I now work in prisons as a prison chaplain in Pentonville, so I understand it pretty well, and I always demur from the slightly cynical tabloid view that it’s the most terrible tragedy of life. “There’s life after prison and it’s very much going to be up to Boris Becker or anybody else, what they make of life after prison. The question I think is, do they learn from prison? Do they learn from the experience of a fall? And if Boris comes out, perhaps a bit less arrogant, perhaps a bit less prone to extravagance, and learns from his mistakes, he is a youngish man, he’s going to come out of prison aged 53 or so. I came out of prison in my late 60s. It’s harder for an old dog to learn new tricks, but as a young dog or youngish dog, I think Boris Becker will find new things to do post-prison and not be devastated for the rest of his life by this disgrace.”