Notorious prisoner Charles Bronson has become the first person to formally ask for a public Parole Board hearing after rules were changed in a bid to remove the secrecy behind the process. Reforms which came into force on Thursday mean parole hearings could 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. The prisoners in question, Government ministers and officials are also among those who can request the case is not discussed behind closed doors.
Bronson, one of the UK’s longest serving prisoners who has since changed his name to Salvador, was widely expected to request his latest parole hearing was heard in public, having previously said he wanted his to be the first to take place. The Parole Board confirmed on Thursday a request for Bronson’s case to be heard in public has been received and will now be considered.
It is understood the application was made on his behalf.
Bronson, whose family hail from Aberystwyth, was initially jailed for seven years for armed robbery in 1974. But, apart from two brief spells of freedom, he's been locked up ever since for carrying out a number of violent attacks on prison staff whilst inside.
Last week Wales Online reported how he had told he was planning to seek his appeal to be heard in public. He said then he was going to "expose the system" for what it had done to him.
In 1999 Bronson was jailed for life, with a minimum term of three years, for taking his art teacher hostage at Hull prison after he criticised his drawing ability. Then, in 2019, Bronson stood trial and was acquitted on a charge of attempted grievous bodily harm on a governor at Wakefield jail in West Yorkshire.
The 70-year-old has asked: "I've never murdered anyone, never raped anyone - what am I in jail for? People think I'm a serial killer. But it's all going to come out in the wash, my side of the story. And the truth will shock the planet."
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