What did Charles Bronson do? Who is the prisoner, does he have a son, crimes explained and parole bid latest

The public parole hearing for infamous prisoner Charles Bronson has concluded that the Bronson will not be freed from jail.

In a document detailing the decision published on Thursday (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.”

Dubbed one of Britain’s most violent offenders, Bronson, who changed his surname to Salvador in 2014 after the artist Salvador Dali, has been in prison for much of the last 50 years, often spending time in solitary confinement or specialist units.

Last year it was announced by the government that, in a bid to boost transparency and increase public confidence, members of the public and the media will be able to ask for a

At the time, Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Dominic Raab, said: “This is the first step in our reforms to the parole process. We are making proceedings more transparent, so victims and the public can see justice being done.

“I am also making sure there is one, crystal clear, recommendation from the Justice Secretary when it comes to the risk of release of the most serious offenders. We are overhauling the system, to make sure public protection is the overriding the priority.”

Who is Charles Bronson?

Bronson is a British criminal who has repeatedly been described as the “most violent prisoner in Britain” and “Britain’s most notorious prisoner”.

Born Michael Gordon Peterson on 6 December 1952, Bronson has also been known as Charlie, Charles Ali Ahmed, Mickey and Charles Salvador.

One of three sons to Eira and Joe Peterson, Bronson lived in Luton from the age of four until he was a teenager, when he and his family moved to Cheshire.

Speaking of Bronson as a young boy, his aunt, Eileen Parry, said: “As a boy he was a lovely lad. He was obviously bright and always good with children.

“He was gentle and mild mannered, never a bully - he would defend the weak.”

According to Parry, Bronson’s life of crime can be traced to when he and his family moved to Merseyside, which is where he fell in with a bad crowd. By the age of 13, he had become part of a gang of four robbers and was held in juvenile court after being caught stealing. Bronson also often got into fights and regularly missed school.

After being involved in petty crime and in trouble with the authorities for years, Bronson was eventually convicted of armed robbery in 1974 and, at the age of 22, was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Over the course of his time in prison, Bronson had more time added to his sentence for attacking prisoners and prison officers and for destroying prison property. He was continuously transferred to different prisons as well, including to Parkhurst Prison in 1976, where he met and became friends with the notorious Kray twins, whom Bronson later described as “the best two guys I’ve ever met”.

Other prisons Bronson spent time in included Wakefield, Walton, Wandsworth, Broadmoor and Gartree. He was eventually released in 1987.

What happened whilst he was out of prison?

After he was released from prison, Bronson went on to have a short lived career as a bare knuckle boxer in the East End of London.

In 1988, Bronson robbed a jewellery shop and was arrested a week later. His defence had originally looked strong as eyewitnesses were unwilling to testify against him - this was until his girlfriend at the time suddenly became the prosecution’s main witness.

Now without an alibi, and with evidence stacked against him, Bronson pleaded guilty to armed robbery in June 1988 and was sentenced to seven years.

Whilst in prison, Bronson fulfilled his reputation that he gained during his earlier stint in prison by getting into fights with prisoners and prison officers and destroying prison property.

He was released in November 1992 where he spent just over 50 days free before he was, once again, arrested for conspiracy to rob. While these charges were dismissed in February 1993, he was then arrested 16 days later for conspiracy to rob and for the possession of a sawn off shotgun.

In September 1993, he was found guilty of intent to rob and was given an eight year sentence.

While he was in Belmarsh, in April 1996, Bronson took three inmates hostage in a cell and as a result had another seven years added onto his sentence, although this was later reduced to five on appeal. This wasn’t the first time that Bronson had taken hostages whilst in prison - previously he had taken a doctor hostage at Birmingham, Deputy Governor Adrian Wallace at Hull and the Deputy Governor hostage at Frankland.

Why is he currently in prison?

In 1999, Bronson was handed a life sentence after he took another person hostage - prison teacher Phil Danielson - whom he held for 44 hours in Hull prison.

Danielson had been taking a tutorial in the prison when Bronson stormed the classroom and tied a skipping rope around his neck, and pulled the teacher around at knifepoint.

The teacher went on to win £65,000 in compensation from the Home Office in a settlement that was agreed out of court.

Speaking about the incident, Danielson said: “The experience has left my career prospects in ruins. You assume prison managers are paid and trained to protect you. That clearly wasn’t the case.”

Since the end of his latest minimum term in 2003, the Parole Board has reviewed Bronson’s case six times. Bronson returned to HM Prison Woodhill in 2018, where he is believed to still be incarcerated.

Is he married - does he have children?

Bronson has been married on a number of occasions throughout his life. He met his first wife, Irene Kelsey, in 1969. Kelsey, in a piece for Pick Me Up Magazine, described Brosnon as “so different from any other boys I knew”.

“He always wore tailored suits, had perfectly-groomed sideburns and a cockney accent,” she said. Not long after the two started dating, Kelsey fell pregnant and when she was four months along, they married at Chester Register Office in December 1970. They named their son Michael Jonathan Peterson.

Five years after Bronson was sentenced to seven years in the summer of 1974, Kelsey wrote to Bronson asking for a divorce, stating that she couldn’t wait her whole life for him to get out.

“He was supposed to get out after three years but his sentence was extended after he got into a fight with another prisoner. Every time it looked like he’d get out, he got in more trouble. He held prison sieges and rooftop protests,” she said. Bronson signed the papers, and Kelsey later remarried.

Bronson also remarried - in 2001, he married Saira Rehman, a Bengali single mother who began writing to Bronson whilst he was in prison after first seeing a picture of him in a newspaper. After three months of writing, and having only met nine times, the two married at Milton Keynes prison.

For a brief period of time, Bronson converted to Islam and went by the name Charles Ali Ahmed, although he didn’t change his name legally. When he and Rehman divorced after four years, he renounced his faith in Islam.

Bronson then went on to marry actress Paula Williamson, best known for her roles in soaps like Coronation Street and Emmerdale. The pair had been in a relationship for five months before they got married in November 2017 inside the walls of HMP Wakefield.

Prior to the marriage, Williamson said: “I know he had a public image of being a violent prisoner, but in reality, he is so different.”

She added: “There are obviously difficulties that him being in prison cause our relationship, but we feel so strongly about each other, we’re determined to make it work.”

Bronson asked for a divorce the following year after pictures of a man’s face in Williamson’s breasts and Williamson kissing another man whilst on holiday in Tenerife were leaked to the Sun.

Talking to the news outlet, Williamson said: “I’m absolutely devastated. I can’t stop crying. I made one stupid mistake. It was just a dare. They took a snap and in that one second they ended my marriage. My hopes and dreams of living with my husband when he is released are now over.”

Williamson passed away in 2019 after her body was found at her home in Stoke-on-Trent. Staffordshire Police did not regard her death as suspicious. A coroner later ruled that her death was drug related.

Bronson discovered he allegedly had a long lost son in 2018 in newspaper photographer George Bamby. Bronson recognised his name after he appeared in a Channel 4 documentary called Confessions of the Paparazzi. Bronson reached out to Bamby and had him complete a DNA test that supposedly confirmed that he was his father.

Speaking to ITV’s This Morning about meeting Bronson, Bamby said: “I’ve gone in and Charlie is stood on his hands upside down doing 100 press ups in mid-air singing this song. He jumps up, does a back flip and walks up to the bars and says, “Georgie boy good to meet you”.”

He added: “Yeah in the past he’s been violent and done some evil things, he’s told me that. He said, ‘Yeah I’ve done some bad things, 33 of them I deserved but the last 10 I didn’t.’”

However, Bamby has since said that he and Bronson aren’t actually related, and that the six year relationship they had maintained was a publicity stunt. Bamby said he agreed to fake the relation in order to gain publicity for the notorious prisoner, adding that he “made loads of money” from it.

The self-described “PR agent” made the comment during an interview with TalkTV about Bronson’s Parole Board bid to be freed from jail.

Bamby said Bronson approached him six years ago asking if he would help “get loads of publicity for him and make sure he wasn’t forgotten about”.

He said: “Me and Charlie together made up the story that he was my dad. Charles Bronson is not my father. I am a PR agent. I’m a marketing person, and I’m the UK’s number one paparazzi. I’ve not told anybody this for six years and it’s been an absolute bane of my life.”

He added: “Me and Charlie, for the last six years, have made loads of money, we’ve had loads of fun, we’ve created loads of stories, we’ve done loads of ridiculous things, we’ve manipulated the media, we’ve manipulated the prison service. I got into the maximum security services in four different prisons as a journalist.”

Bamby said the profits were split between him and Bronson’s consultant, because people serving jail time are not legally allowed to make money.

When asked for an interview by the PA news agency, Bamby said to “refer to the (TalkTV) interview”, adding: “I’m off on holiday”.

When was his parole hearing?

Bronson’s case was reviewed by the Parole Board on Monday 6 March and Wednesday 8 March.

In a document setting out the decision for a public hearing released last year, 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.”

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.

Speaking to the Metro in 2022, Bronson said: “There is no more sweeping my case under the mat. I’ve nothing to hide from the media or the public. It’s this vindictive system that runs from the truth. I’m the first to admit I probably deserve a good 30 years caged up and all the brutality against me.

“But this last 20 years has been nothing but revenge – to make an example of a man they forever label an out of control lunatic. This is my time now.”

Did he lose his parole bid?

Bronson lost his Parole Board bid to be freed from jail. The decision came after he took part in one of the coutry’s first public parole hearings earlier in March.

In a document detailing the decision published on Thursday, 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.”

Bronson’s ex-wife Irene Dunroe told the PA news agency she was “devastated” and “shocked” by the decision, adding: “It’s disgusting and very, very upsetting. I can’t believe it.”

This was his eighth parole review, meaning he has already spent an additional 20 years behind bars.

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.

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 in high security jails for much of his time behind bars.

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.

The summary of the Parole Board decision said the panel “accepted that Mr Salvador genuinely wants to progress and that he is motivated to work towards his release. It thought that there was evidence of improved self-control and better emotional management”.

But the parole judges were “mindful of his history of persistent rule breaking and that Mr Salvador sees little wrong with this. He lives his life rigidly by his own rules and code of conduct and is quick to judge others by his own standards”.

“His positive progress has to be assessed in the context of him being held in a highly restrictive environment”, the document said, adding that it was “unknown exactly what is containing Mr Salvador’s risk. It is unclear whether the strong external controls of custody are mainly responsible or whether his attitudes have genuinely changed”.

The panel said it “could not be satisfied” Bronson had the “skills to manage his risk of future violence until he has been extensively tested outside of his current highly restricted environment”.

Decisions on moving and categorising prisoners are “entirely a matter for the Secretary of State” and the Parole Board said it would not normally comment on such matters, but added: “However, in the particular circumstances of this case, the panel observed that there is an identified pathway for Salvador in custody and the evidence supported such a move within a closed prison.”

This is a “pivotal point in Mr Salvador’s sentence, when his motivation to desist from violence is at its highest” and both psychologists instructed by Mr Salvador’s lawyers were “unequivocal in their view that he no longer requires the secure placement in his current prison”, the papers said.

At the time of his crimes Bronson was described as someone who had “a need for status”, bears grudges and struggles to control “extreme emotions”.

“The panel noted that Mr Salvador enjoyed the excitement, notoriety and the financial rewards of his violent and criminal lifestyle”, the document said.

But they found Bronson had since “changed” and there had been a “prolonged period of improved behaviour” in custody in recent years.

According to the document, Bronson said he was “terrified of dying in prison”. While he has not been involved in any incidents of physical violence since 2018, prison reports suggest there were “veiled threats” in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

“Mr Salvador lives by his own rules” and “judges others to his own standards”, the document said, adding that he was willing to “flagrantly breach prison rules”.

Officials currently plan to move Bronson to another prison where he can show how he “manages himself in a more open unit with less restrictions on his behaviour”, the parole papers added.

Bronson is the second inmate in UK legal history to have his case heard in public after rules were changed last year in a bid to remove the secrecy around the process.

He will be eligible for another parole review in about two years.