I’m an ex-prison governor – here’s the worst lag I’ve ever had to deal with… I’ll never forget our gruesome encounter

AN ex-prison governor has revealed the worst lag he's ever had to deal with.

Dr David Wilson is now a leading criminology professor who stars in In the Footsteps of Killers alongside Silent Witness actress Emilia Fox.

But during his time as a governor, David explained how an aggravated burglar "saved up his excrement" in a bag before throwing it in his face in a horror exchange.

He told The Sun: "I was only assaulted once as a prison governor.

"And I hope that is some measure of the fact that even with the very violent offenders, they recognized that I was a decent human being doing my best.

"I wasn't trying to hurt them. I wasn't trying to do them wrong. I was trying to help them.

"So I've only been assaulted once and that was when I would not allow a prisoner to be visited by his brother, who had just been released from prison on very violent offenses.

"And the prisoner that I was in charge of also had an escape record.

"The only time I've been assaulted is by him.

"And he saved up his excrement in a plastic bag for a week, and then threw the contents of that bag in my face.

"And the interesting thing is, he was not a serial killer. He was not a murderer. He was an aggravated burglar.

"So whenever people ask: Are you ever afraid of murderers or serial murderers? I've never been assaulted by them.

"I've been assaulted by an aggravated burglar. And that's the only time."

Wilson worked at several prisons across the country before ending up in academia.

He added: "I worked at Wormwood scrubs. And then I worked in a young offender institution, and then I went to HMP Grendon.

"That's the only prison in the country that works as a therapeutic community. It still does.

"That meant that every single day that prisoners are in therapy, they have to talk about their offending.

"And it was that experience that taught me about the circumstances in which violent men would be violent and as a result of my work there, I got asked to go and be part of the commissioning team that would open up HMP Woodhill.

"I had responsibility for managing the two units for the 12 most violent man in the country."

The Channel 4 series he is now apart of, alongside Emilia Fox, looks into famous unsolved murder cases.

The pair recently discovered a major breakthrough in eight-year-old Vishal Mehotra's case.

The second series is available to watch now on All4.