BRITAIN’s most notorious prisoner will go before a public Parole Board next year in his latest bid for freedom.
Charles Bronson, 69, is one of the UK's longest-serving prisoners – and has now been granted an application for his case review to be heard in public.
Dubbed one of Britain's most dangerous offenders, Bronson – who since 2014 has gone by the name Salvador after the artist Salvador Dali – has spent the best part of the last 50 years behind bars.
First caged for armed robbery, spates of manic violence and blackmail while inside kept him imprisoned – often in solitary confinement or specialist units.
A previous inmate at the infamous psychiatric hospital Broadmoor, it is believed he is now being held at high-security HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes.
Bronson has held 11 hostages in nine different sieges – with victims including governors, doctors, staff, and, on one occasion, his own solicitor.
At one stage Bronson was married to former Coronation Street actress Paula Williamson, who was found dead in her home in 2019.
He also has a son, Michael Jonathan Peterson, with his ex-wife Irene Kelsey.
Since being given a discretionary life term in 2000 for taking a prison teacher hostage for 44 hours, the Parole Board has refused to direct his release.
In a document setting out the decision for a public hearing, Parole Board chairwoman Caroline Corby said: "I have concluded that a public hearing is in the interests of justice in the case of Mr Salvador. I, therefore, grant the application for the hearing to be held in public."
Bronson's case is yet to be listed and a date for the hearing has not been set but the Parole Board said it is expected to take place early next year.
The 66-year-old was the first prisoner to formally ask for a public hearing after the rules changed earlier this year to allow the public and press to observe proceedings, in a bid to remove the secrecy around the parole process.
Russell Causley, who murdered his wife, Carole Packman, in the 1980s and never revealed where he hid her body, is set to become the first prisoner in UK history to have a public Parole Board hearing.
Causley was freed in 2020 but sent back to jail last year after breaching his licence conditions. The hearing, originally listed for October, was adjourned and is now expected to take place next month.
Two other applications for cases to be heard in public have been rejected and three are still being considered.
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