Charles Bronson, one of the UK’s longest-serving and most high-profile prisoners, has become the first inmate to formally request that his next Parole Board hearing be heard in public after the new rules came into force on Thursday in an attempt to remove the mystery behind a process.
The parole board said a request had been received for the 70-year-old’s case to be heard in public and would be considered. It is understood that the application was filed on his behalf.
No date has been set for his next parole hearing, although it is believed it could be later this year or early 2023. It is not known how long it will take for the Parole Board to decide whether the hearing can was held in a public.
Public outcry in 2018 over the Parole Commission’s initial decision to release convicted serial sex offender John Warboys led to changes that allowed for greater scrutiny of the process.
The new reforms allow case reviews – which determine whether an inmate should be released or remain behind bars – to be open to victims and the press. The prisoners, government ministers and officials in question are also among those who can request that the case be heard in public.
Bronson was expected to publicly request his next parole hearing after previously saying he wanted to be the first.
The inmate, who was born Michael Peterson but changed his name to Charles Bronson and later Charles Salvador, was jailed in 1974 for armed robbery of a post office and sentenced to seven years in prison. Because of his aggressive behavior, he remains in prison almost continuously and spends much of his time in solitary confinement.
He is believed to still be in custody at the high-security HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes.
He previously told how he was first sent to prison in 1968 and held 11 hostages in nine different sieges with victims including prison governors, doctors, staff and once his own lawyer.
Bronson was sentenced in 2000 to a discretionary life sentence with a minimum of four years for taking a prison teacher at HMP Hull hostage for 44 hours. Since then, the Parole Board has repeatedly refused to order his release.
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Earlier this week he sent a voicemail to Sky News from behind bars asking why he was still in prison.
A Parole Board spokesman said: “The new Parole Board rules allow parole hearings to be held in public for the first time in some cases where it is in the interests of justice to do so.
“It is important to point out that the normal position would be for parole hearings to remain in private to ensure that witnesses can give their best evidence and that victims are not put in a position that could lead to re-offending traumatizing.”
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