Charles Bronson loses latest appeal to leave prison

Charles Bronson has lost his latest bid to be freed from jail after being denied release by the Parole Board.

The decision comes after one of the UK’s most notorious prisoners – who changed his surname to Salvador in 2014 – took part in one of the country’s first public parole hearings earlier this month.

The Parole Board issued a statement on Thursday saying the panel was "not satisfied that Mr Salvador was suitable for release".

Once dubbed one of Britain’s most violent offenders, Bronson has spent most of the past 48 years behind bars, apart from two brief periods of freedom during which he reoffended, for a string of thefts, firearms and violent offences, including 11 hostage-taking incidents in nine different sieges.

Victims included governors, doctors, staff and, on one occasion, his own solicitor.

Bronson was handed a discretionary life sentence with a minimum term of four years in 2000 for taking a prison teacher at HMP Hull hostage for 44 hours.

Since then, the Parole Board has repeatedly refused to direct his release, making him one of the UK's longest-serving prisoners.

Here, Yahoo News takes a look at the life of Charles Bronson, and why he's been in prison for so long.

Who is Charles Bronson?

Bronson was born Michael Gordon Peterson in Luton on 6 December, 1952.

One of two brothers, he was from a respectable family and was said to be a well-adjusted boy who enjoyed school and got on well with classmates.

"As a boy, he was a lovely lad. He was obviously bright and always good with children," his aunt Eileen Parry told the BBC in 2000. She added: "He was gentle and mild-mannered, never a bully – he would defend the weak."

Watch: Britain's most notorious prisoner says he can 'taste freedom'

Bronson started getting in trouble as a teenager when his family moved to Cheshire, and was already part of a gang of thieves by 13, which saw him reprimanded in a juvenile court after he was caught stealing.

He would often play truant, and when he was in school, he was repeatedly expelled due to fighting. He was also arrested for a number of petty crimes during his teens, he recalled in his 2000 memoir Bronson.

Read more: Moment Charles Bronson dances naked outside cell as he taunts prison officers

At 19, he was arrested over a smash-and-grab robbery. Bronson said the judge who passed a suspended sentence gave him the "biggest chance of my life" – but just a few years later, he would be behind bars.

Why is Charles Bronson in prison?

Bronson was jailed for seven years in 1974 aged 22 for the armed robbery of a post office in Little Sutton, during which he stole £26.18.

He quickly earned a reputation for violent outbursts and would be moved between prisons numerous times due to his attacks on staff and inmates.

These include scarring one inmate using a glass jug, attempting to poison a prisoner in the cell next to him and smashing up a prison workshop.

Over the years, he has caused so much disruption that he has reportedly been moved prison more than 120 times, and is estimated to have caused millions of pounds of damage during nine rooftop protests.

Broadmoor Hospital

In 1978, Bronson was taken to Broadmoor, the high-security psychiatric hospital in Berkshire, after an attack on a prison officer and a suicide attempt.

Despite trying to pacify him with medication, Bronson's violent outbursts continued, including an incident when he tried to strangle to death inmate Gordon Robinson and another three-day rooftop protest in which he caused £25,000 worth of damage.

He later staged an 18-day hunger strike and was transferred to Ashworth Hospital (then Park Lane Hospital) near Liverpool in 1984, where he stabbed a patient with a sauce bottle for making sexual advances towards him.

Bronson was returned to the general prison population in 1985 at Risley Remand Centre in Warrington but continued with a pattern of violence, rooftop protests and prison transfers, until he was released in 1987.

Bareknuckle boxing and return to prison

During his short-lived time on the outside, Bronson had a brief stint as an illegal bare-knuckle boxer in east London.

It was as this time that he changed his name from Michael Peterson to Charles Bronson, after the legendary Hollywood tough guy actor, on the advice of his fight promoter, Paul Edmonds.

He claims to have killed a Rottweiler with his bare hands during a £10,000 fight, writing that it was "not something I'm proud of, because I love animals".

In January 1988, Bronson found himself back in custody after just 69 days of freedom after robbing a jewellery shop, and continued his reign of terror inside prison wings.

He was released again in November 1992 but was only free for 53 days before being arrested for conspiracy to rob.

In 1996, Bronson took hostage two Iraqi hijackers and another inmate at Belmarsh prison in London. He instructed them to call him 'General' and to tickle his feet.

He demanded a getaway helicopter to Cuba, two sub-machine guns, 5,000 rounds of ammunition and an axe – and warned negotiators he would eat one of his victims should his demands not be met. The episode ended when he slashed himself with a razor.

Bronson held hostage prison art teacher Phil Danielson in 1999 during a 44-hour siege in Hull Prison. He left Danielson so traumatised he has been unable to work since.

Bronson was given a discretionary life term with a minimum of four years for the attack.

Read more: Drink-driver killed mother in one of 'worst hit-and-run cases ever seen'

Appearing on Channel 4 documentary Bronson: Fit to Be Free?, Danielson said: "Bronson burst into the room, grabbed me by the throat and punched me in the face.

"He stabbed me in the leg and told me, 'Take your last breath. You're going to die.' The damage caused by him has moulded my whole life. It'll be with me for the rest of my life.”"

Bronson's love life

Bronson met his first wife Irene in 1971. They had a son, Michael Jonathan, a year later, and divorced in 1976.

He found love again in 2001 with Fatema Saira Rehman, who saw a picture of the prisoner in a newspaper and began a correspondence.

Following their 2001 wedding, he briefly converted to Islam and changed his name for a second time to Charles Ali Ahmed. After four years of marriage the couple divorced and he renounced the religion and his new name.

Soap actress Paula Williamson met Bronson in prison in late 2016 and the couple married in November 2017, but their marriage was annulled in 2019.

Bronson the artist

During his time in prison, Bronson has cultivated a keen interest in painting.

His surrealist drawings have won 11 awards from the Koestler Trust, a prison arts charity, and one was even displayed at Angel tube station in London.

In February, he launched an exhibition of his works – many depicting a nightmarish view of his life in prison and in isolation units.

Some of his works were put up for sale, with prices ranging from £700 to £30,000 for a multiple set of images.

Artist and curator Oliver Hammond said: "If we can show that Charlie does genuinely want to be released from prison to work on his art, there's definitely a good chance this can help with his parole.

"You know, why would someone, after creating the works that he's created behind the cell door, not want to continue that on a larger scale outside?

"It's a little bit grim, but it's grim to be in solitary confinement for 27 years and in prison for a total of 47 years. This is a man's mind depicting his grim life."

Why did he lose his appeal?

In March 2023, three parole judges considered his case during a hearing at HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, while members of the press and public watched part of the proceedings on a live stream from the Royal Courts of Justice in central London.

He likened his experience in front of the Parole Board to being on BBC programme The Apprentice.

A psychologist told the panel Bronson has post-traumatic stress disorder after facing some “brutal and unacceptable” treatment behind bars. He has been held in solitary confinement for much of his time in jail.

During the hearing he was described as holding “anti-authoritarian views” and being “suspicious” of the motives of others, as well as having a “romanticised” view of violent incidents in the past.

None of the prison and probation officials who gave evidence at the parole hearing said he was ready to be released.

In a document detailing the decision published on 30 March, the Parole Board said: “After considering the circumstances of his offending, the progress that Mr Salvador has made while in custody and the evidence presented at the hearings, the panel was not satisfied that Mr Salvador was suitable for release.

“Nor did the panel recommend to the secretary of state that he should be transferred to an open prison.”