Britain’s most notorious prisoner Charles Bronson to launch bid for freedom at parole hearing today
Britain’s most notorious prisoner Charles Bronson will launch a bid for freedom at a public parole hearing today.
He will argue that after nearly half-a-century in jail, most of it in solitary confinement, he is safe to be released.
Justice Secretary Dominic Raab is opposing his parole and will argue that Bronson, 70, is at high risk of serious harm to the public.
Bronson sent Sky News a postcard from his prison cell last week.
It showed an everyday London street scene – to him, freedom.
He was confident he would be released and wrote: “They should have compassion for my mother. It’s her life-long dream to see me free and happy.”
Bronson sent Sky News a postcard from his prison cell
Bronson was jailed for armed robbery in 1974 and, but for a couple of brief episodes of freedom, has been in jail ever since.
His original seven-year sentence has been extended many times because of his violent attacks on prison staff and fellow inmates.
In 1999, he held an art teacher hostage for two days in Hull prison and, although he didn’t physically hurt him, his victim was left so traumatised he never went back to work.
Bronson was given a life sentence, with a minimum term of three years, but has had many parole bids turned down because of subsequent violent episodes.
His lawyers will argue that it’s eight years since his last conviction and four years since an internal prison adjudication for violence.
Bronson is currently assessed as a medium risk to staff and fellow inmates, but is still a Category A prisoner held in the close supervision centre (CSC) at Woodhill Prison near Milton Keynes.
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From July 2022: Bronson sends voice note to Sky News
His solicitor Dean Kingham said Bronson, who now calls himself Charles Salvador, is deliberately being prevented from making progress towards a less restricted regime.
He said: “It is clear to me that Mr Salvador is a political prisoner, given the lack of political will to progress someone as high profile as him. By keeping him in CSC conditions the (justice secretary) is trying to influence the Parole Board.”
Bronson’s family and supporters say it is unfair to keep him in jail when prisoners convicted of more serious offences have been granted parole.
He has also shown he would be able to work and support himself through his drawings, which sometimes sell for several thousand pounds.
In a voice message to Sky News from his cell last year, Bronson said: “It’s an absolute liberty. I’ve never murdered anyone, I’ve never raped anyone. What am I in jail for? People don’t believe it. They think I’m a serial killer.”
Former Metropolitan Police detective chief inspector Simon Harding said: “Bronson has an incredibly violent streak and it’s very, very risky to release people like that.
“And then, what happens if he is released? There’s all the monitoring involved because he will be on a life licence. He’s a very dangerous man who’s could be released into society very shortly.”
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The Parole Board hearing is expected to last for three days, with a decision announced two weeks later.
The board could recommend freeing Bronson, moving him to an open prison or keeping him locked up.
The justice secretary can block a recommendation to release Bronson, but such a move would ultimately be decided by the courts.
The board will hear from prison and probation staff, a lawyer for the justice secretary and Bronson himself.
The hearing is being held in public at the Royal Courts of Justice, with Bronson appearing by video link from jail.
Consultant psychiatrist Dr Bob Johnson, who first treated Bronson more than 30 years ago, said he should be freed.
“The Parole Board should say ‘this man has been locked up for 50 years, he has 50 years of problems, violence and unruly behaviour, but we’ve decided that he’s now low enough risk’,” he said.
“I think he probably is, but the transition from 50 years inside to outside life is going to be very, very dramatic.”
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Dr Bob Johnson with a letter from Charles Bronson
Dr Johnson was a controversial figure at Parkhurst Prison on the Isle of Wight, where he treated dozens of murderers and other violent men such as Bronson.
Instead of prescribing control drugs, he encouraged prisoners to understand and confront the reasons for their behaviour, which was often rooted in childhood trauma.
When the Home Office ended his contract, Bronson wrote him a letter in which he lamented his sudden departure.
He wrote: “A sad day to see you go, but I must admit I admire your principles. It’s a rare sight to see a doctor stand up to this system.
“Dr ****** was a man who believed in ‘drug control’, whereas you believed in humanity, then trust.
“Your way obviously worked as you cut the violence.”
It’s like The Godfather, one reformed drug trafficker tells me.
The mythical gangster film centred on an organised crime dynasty locked in a transfer of power.
Communities in Scotland currently have a front row seat to a new war of violence, torture, and taunts as feuding drug lords and notorious families grapple for control of Glasgow and Edinburgh.
There have been more than a dozen brutal attacks over the past six weeks – ranging from fire bombings to attacks on children and gun violence.
A firebomb attack in Scotland
Victims left for dead, businesses up in flames
Gangsters have filmed themselves setting fire to buildings and homes connected to the associates and relatives of their bitter rivals.
The main aim, they boast, is to “exterminate” the opposition.
The taunting footage, accompanied by the song Keep On Running by The Spencer Davis Group, has been plastered over social media as part of a deliberate game of goading.
A 12-year-old boy and 72-year-old woman were left for dead when teenagers wearing balaclavas burst into a home in north Glasgow.
Garages and businesses have gone up in flames. Shots were fired at an Edinburgh house.
Signals are being sent of who wants control of Scotland’s dark criminal underworld.
A firebomb attack that saw a man throw an incendiary device through a building window
The fire attack set to the song Keep On Running by The Spencer Davis Group
What’s caused the gang war?
The former director of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, Graeme Pearson, explains how a “vacuum of leadership” is playing a part.
Last October, Glasgow-based cocaine kingpin Jamie Stevenson, known as The Iceman, was jailed after orchestrating a £100m cocaine shipment stashed in banana boxes from South America.
The mob leader was one of Britain’s most wanted, running his business like another on-screen criminal enterprise: The Sopranos.
The 59-year-old fugitive went on the run before eventually being hunted and apprehended by police while out jogging in the Netherlands.
Jamie Stevenson. Pic: Police Scotland
Pic: Crown Office
‘Old scores to settle’
But paranoia was running rife about how this notorious gangster could be brought down. Was there a grass? Was it one of their own?
It further fuelled divisions and forced new alliances to be forged across Scotland’s organised criminal networks.
It wasn’t until The Iceman case came to court that it was revealed an encrypted messaging platform, known as EncroChat, had been infiltrated by law enforcement.
It ultimately led to Stevenson pleading guilty.
Ex-senior drug enforcement officer Mr Pearson told Sky News: “It is a complex picture because you have got people who are in prison who still want to have influence outside and look after what was their business.
“On the outside you’ve got wannabes who are coming forward, and they think this is an opportunity for them, and you have got others have old scores to settle that they could not settle when crime bosses were around.”
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Graeme Pearson
Mr Pearson describes a toxic mix swirling to create outbursts of violence unfolding in Scotland.
He concluded: “All that mixes together – and the greed for the money that comes from drugs, and from the kudos that comes from being a ‘main man’, and you end up with competition, violence, and the kind of incidents we have seen over the past four to six weeks.”
New wave of violence ‘barbaric’
Glasgow man Mark Dempster is a former addict, dealer, and drug smuggler who is now an author and respected counsellor helping people quit drinking and drugs.
He describes the “jostle for power” as not a new concept among Glasgow’s high profile gangland families.
Mark Dempster
“There is always going to be someone new who wants to control the markets. It is like The Godfather. There is no difference between Scotland, Albania, or India,” he said.
Mr Dempster suggests a shift in tactics in Glasgow and Edinburgh in recent weeks, with 12-year-olds being viciously attacked in the middle of the night.
“It is barbaric. When young people, children, get pulled into the cross fire. It takes it to a different level.
“At least with the old mafiosa they had an unwritten rule that no children, no other family members. You would deal directly with the main people that were your opposition.”
Police Scotland is racing to get control of the situation, but declined to speak to Sky News about its ongoing operation.
It has been suggested 100 officers are working on this case, with “arrests imminent”.
But this is at the very sharp end of sophisticated criminal empires where the police are not feared, there are fierce vendettas and, clearly, power is up for grabs.
UK
Laws may need to be bolstered to crack down on exploitation of child ‘influencers’, senior MP suggests
Laws may need to be strengthened to crack down on the exploitation of child “influencers”, a senior Labour MP has warned.
Chi Onwurah, chair of the science, technology and innovation committee, said parts of the Online Safety Act – passed in October 2023 – may already be “obsolete or inadequate”.
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Experts have raised concerns that there is a lack of provision in industry laws for children who earn money through brand collaborations on social media when compared to child actors and models.
This has led to some children advertising in their underwear on social media, one expert has claimed.
Those working in more traditional entertainment fields are safeguarded by performance laws, which strictly govern the hours a minor can work, the money they earn and who they are accompanied by.
The Child Influencer Project, which has curated the world’s first industry guidelines for the group, has warned of a “large gap in UK law” which is not sufficiently filled by new online safety legislation.
Official portrait of Chi Onwurah.
Pic: UK Parlimeant
The group’s research found that child influencers could be exposed to as many as 20 different risks of harm, including to dignity, identity, family life, education, and their health and safety.
Ms Onwurah told Sky News there needs to be a “much clearer understanding of the nature of child influencers ‘work’ and the legal and regulatory framework around it”.
She said: “The safety and welfare of children are at the heart of the Online Safety Act and rightly so.
“However, as we know in a number of areas the act may already be obsolete or inadequate due to the lack of foresight and rigour of the last government.”
Victoria Collins, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for science, innovation and technology, agreed that regulations “need to keep pace with the times”, with child influencers on social media “protected in the same way” as child actors or models.
“Liberal Democrats would welcome steps to strengthen the Online Safety Act on this front,” she added.
‘Something has to be done’
MPs warned in 2022 that the government should “urgently address the gap in UK child labour and performance regulation that is leaving child influencers without protection”.
They asked for new laws on working hours and conditions, a mandate for the protection of the child’s earnings, a right to erasure and to bring child labour arrangements under the oversight of local authorities.
However, Dr Francis Rees, the principal investigator for the Child Influencer Project, told Sky News that even after the implementation of the Online Safety Act, “there’s still a lot wanting”.
“Something has to be done to make brands more aware of their own duty of care towards kids in this arena,” she said.
Dr Rees added that achieving performances from children on social media “can involve extremely coercive and disruptive practices”.
“We simply have to do more to protect these children who have very little say or understanding of what is really happening. Most are left without a voice and without a choice.”
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The researcher pointed to one particular instance, in which children were advertising an underwear brand on social media.
She said: “The kids in the company’s own marketing material or their own media campaigns are either pulling up the band of the underwear underneath their clothing, or they’re holding the underwear up while they’re fully clothed.
“But whenever you look at any of the sponsored content produced by families with children – mum, dad, and child are in their underwear.”
Dr Rees said it is “night and day” in terms of how companies are behaving when they have responsibility for the material, versus “the lack of responsibility once they hand it over to parents with kids”.
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