‘I saw a gruesome video of men being hacked to death… then stared into the eyes of the killer who did it’: Richard Madeley recalls a ‘psychotic’ inmate he met after being granted rare access inside El Salvador’s brutal mega-jail

For his latest TV project, Richard Madeley watched a horrific video of innocent people being hacked to death with a machete.

Seeing the cold-blooded murders shook him, but even worse was when Richard came face to face with the man who committed the crime.

‘This level of psychotic personality can be seen in their eyes,’ says Richard, 70.

‘I’ve never looked at men’s faces like this before, or had eyes that squeezed my eyes this much. The atmosphere between you is heavy. This video was the most graphic thing I’ve ever seen. It took me a long time to get this out of my head.’

Richard endured it all to see himself given unprecedented access to El Salvador’s notorious ultra-high security prison, CECOT, in his new feature-length documentary, Richard Madeley: Inside the World’s Mega Prison, on Channel 5.

There are currently around 15,000 prisoners here; most of them are gang members who have terrorized the Central American country for decades.

President Nayib Bukele’s crackdown on gangs in 2022 saw thousands of murderous bandits thrown into the newly built Cecot and never released.

Although the prison has been criticized for human rights abuses, El Salvador has transformed from one of the world’s most dangerous countries to one of the safest, with a murder rate lower than that of the United States.

Many prisoners are suspected of being members of rival gangs that have terrorized the country for decades

Maximum security prison at Tecoluca featured in new Channel 5 television documentary

When Richard arrived at Cecot he was shocked to see the prisoners being crammed into huge cells ‘like chickens’.

Sleeping in metal bunk beds with the lights on 24/7, the inmates are given no entertainment other than the Bible, are poorly nourished, and are only allowed out for half an hour a day for exercise and moral lessons.

‘I walked around the atrium and looked at thousands of men, all in exactly the same circumstances,’ says Richard.

‘It was a big shock. My first feeling was pity; This was going to be their life from now on, so this was a living death. They’re dead men walking.’

However, Richard’s questions about the treatment of these prisoners so angered the prison warden, Belarmino García, that he and his staff were removed from Cecot after just a few hours.

“What you don’t see on camera is when they kicked us out, I buttonholed the director and the government’s leading publicist and said: ‘If I go around like a tourist showing off the sights, people will think I’m not objective. ‘I need to ask you tough questions so you can defend this prison.’ They slept on it and let us in the next morning, but it was hard work.’

Capable of housing 40,000 inmates, Cecot consists of eight large pavilions at Tecoluca

Richard Madeley: Inside the World’s Mega Prison airs on Channel 5 next Wednesday

Madeley won jail time after ‘months of negotiations’, producers say

Although he wasn’t required to talk to the inmates when he returned, the warden eventually allowed Richard to have a five-minute conversation with an inmate known as Psycho, not the machete-wielding killer he’d seen the day before, but another violent gang member.

“What I got from him was a sense that he acknowledged the hopelessness of his situation,” Richard says. ‘He was once the king of the world and now he is paying the price for it.’

Richard also meets Salvadorans who are happy to escape gang violence.

‘If gang members needed money they would kidnap people off the street,’ explains Richard. ‘They wanted money for their release and if they were not released within a day, they would kill them. So ordinary people were being terrorized. ‘They are free now.’

The documentary shows the Good Morning Britain presenter is still at the top of her journalistic game and, impressively, it airs just days after she turned 70.

‘It doesn’t feel like there’s a new string to my bow,’ he says. ‘It feels like I’m going back to my roots because that’s how I started my career 50 years ago.

There is no program to prepare prisoners for their return to society after their sentences.

Good Morning Britain host Madeley gets rare access to maximum security prison

The 57-acre facility was built to house 40,000 inmates and opened in 2023.

‘I spent the first 20 years of my professional life as a reporter and I absolutely loved it. So it’s nice to see that my age and experience still matter in my game.

‘Age gives you perspective. For example, I am old enough to remember my parents’ tears when Kennedy was assassinated and England winning the World Cup. And after more than 50 years of asking questions and telling stories, I hope I’ve learned a little something along the way.’

While he still loves his day job, he hopes to be asked to make more documentaries. ‘GMB is a really tight, cheerful and professional team,’ he says.

‘Susanna Reid is probably the most professional journalist I have ever worked with. ‘His attention to detail is outstanding.’

He has a podcast he is working on with his daughter, fitness trainer Chloe Madeley, and still runs the Richard and Judy Book Club with his wife Judy Finnigan, with whom he hosted This Morning from 1988 to 2001. He also found a new way to hold back the advancing years.

’86-year-old Sir Trevor Nunn says he has started counting down his birthdays since he turned 70. That’s what I’m going to do!’

Richard Madeley: Inside the World’s Mega Prison, Wednesday, 21:00, Channel 5