The next Parole Board hearing for Charles Bronson, one of the UK’s longest-serving prisoners, will take place in public.
The Parole Board granted an application for the case of the notorious prisoner – now known as Charles Salvador – to be heard in public. A date is yet to be set.
In a document setting out the decision to hold the hearing in public, 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 became the first prisoner to formally ask for a public Parole Board hearing after rules were changed earlier this year, in a bid to remove the secrecy behind the process.
Reforms came into force in July meaning parole hearings can take place in public for the first time.
This will allow case reviews – which determine if an inmate should be freed from jail or stay behind bars – to be opened up to victims and the press.
Dubbed one of Britain’s most violent offenders, Bronson changed his surname to Salvador in 2014 after the artist Salvador Dali.
He has been in prison for much of the last 50 years, often spending time in solitary confinement or specialist units. It is believed he is still being held at high-security HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes.
Convicted the first time in 1974 for armed robbery, Bronson was sentenced in 2000 to a discretionary life term 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 direct his release.
In July, Bronson released a voice note from his cell in which he pleads for his release.
“What am I in jail for?” Bronson asked. “I’ve never murdered anyone, I’ve never raped anyone. People don’t believe me, they think I’m a serial killer”.
