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 was jailed for armed robbery in 1974 and, but for a couple of brief episodes of freedom, has been in jail ever since.
More from UK
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.
Advertisement
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.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:51
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.
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.”
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.”
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.”
The former head of royal protection says he warned the Royal Family about Mohamed al Fayed’s reputation before Princess Diana took her sons on holiday with him.
The women say he raped and sexually assaulted them while they worked at the luxury department store, prowling the shop floor and “cherry-picking” women to be brought to his executive suite.
Now, Mr Davies says people were aware of the Egyptian businessman’s reputation as far back as the 1990s, and that he raised concerns about him to the Royal Family.
“This was a man who I would be concerned [about] if a relative of mine was going on holiday with him, let alone the future king and his brother and their mother, Princess Diana,” Dai Davies told Sky News.
In July 1997, a month before she died, Princess Diana went on holiday with Fayed and his wife to their residence in St Tropez.
She took the two young princes with her – a holiday Prince Harry described as “heaven” in his 2023 memoir Spare.
“I was horrified because I was aware of some of the allegations even then that were going around,” said Mr Davies.
“I was aware that he had tried very hard to ingratiate himself with the Royal Family and obviously knowing, as I did, the reputation he was alleged [to have] then, I was concerned, and I took the opportunity to inform the Royal Family.”
Mr Davies says he was told: “Her Majesty is aware.”
“The rest is history,” he said.
Buckingham Palace told Sky News it had no comment on the allegations.
Fulham ‘deeply disturbed’ by allegations
Fulham FC, a football club that was owned by Fayed between 1997 and 2013, has saidit is “deeply troubled” by the dozens of “disturbing” sexual abuse allegations against the businessman.
The Premier League club also said it is “in the process of establishing whether anyone at the club is or has been affected” by this alleged behaviour.
However, Gaute Haugenes, who managed the club’s women’s team between 2001 and 2003, told the BBC extra precautions were taken to protect female players from Fayed.
“We were aware he liked young, blonde girls. So we just made sure that situations couldn’t occur. We protected the players.”
The legal team involved in a civil claim against Harrods for allegedly failing to provide a safe system of work for its employees said they aimed to seek justice for the victims of a “vast web of abuse”.
Lily Allen says she had her children “for all the wrong reasons,” at a “high pressure” point in her career when she felt “overwhelmed”.
The singer and actress had her two daughters, Marnie, 12 and Ethel, 11, with her ex-husband Sam Cooper when she was in her mid-20s.
By the time she became a mum, she’d already had hit singles including Smile and The Fear, released two studio albums and received a Brit Award for best British female solo artist.
Speaking about motherhood on the BBC podcast Miss Me?, which Allen hosts with her long-time friend Miquita Oliver, she said: “I think I had children for all the wrong reasons, really.
“Because I was yearning for unconditional love, which I haven’t felt in my life since I was a child.”
The now 39-year-old star added: “And also, my career was at such high speed, high pressure, and I felt like very overwhelmed by what was happening. I just didn’t get much respite you know?
“And I felt like the only way to stop people hassling me was to say, ‘It’s not about me, actually this is about this other person that’s inside me’.
When asked by Oliver if it worked, Allen says: “Yeah, they did leave me alone. I don’t think I really understood what was happening, what I got myself into.”
The daughter of actor Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen, she went on to discuss her own childhood.
Advertisement
“My mum, bless her, had children really early as well, and she really struggled. But she doesn’t really talk about the struggle. And so… She inadvertently gaslit me into thinking it was, you know, easy.
“You just sort of throw the kid over your shoulder and you get on with it.
“Her job was very static, and in one place and went to an office and mine wasn’t like that at all. It wasn’t easy. It just wasn’t easy.”
The ‘nasty scars’ caused by absent parents
Allen previously told the Radio Times podcast that while she loves her children, having them “ruined her career”.
She said her decision to prioritise them over her pop career was a decision she made so as not to inflict the “nasty scars” of being an “absent” parent onto them.
She also said the myth of having it all “really annoyed” as it simply was not true.
Follow Sky News on WhatsApp
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Allen, whose younger brother is Game Of Thrones actor Alfie Allen, married Stranger Things star David Harbour in 2020.
Away from her music career, Allen has branched out into acting over the last few years, starring in two plays in London’s West End, and winning a role in Sky drama Dreamland last year.
An investigation has been launched after “Jail Starmer” graffiti was daubed on the window of an MP’s office.
The Met Police received an allegation of criminal damage on Saturday in relation to the incident at Clive Efford’s office in Eltham & Chislehurst, South London.
This is a new seat which was won by Labour at the general election, though in 2019 it was notionally Conservative.
On Friday night the window was painted with white graffiti which says “Jail Starmer”.
Sources told Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby that an image of the vandalism has been circulating among Labour MPs’ WhatsApp groups this morning. However, Mr Efford has downplayed the incident.
There have been growing concerns about the safety of politicians in recent years, following the murders of Jo Cox and Sir David Amess.
MPs have described working in an increasingly hostile environment, with experiences ranging from death threats and abuse to attacks on their constituency offices and protests at their homes.
In a statement, the Met Police said: “On Saturday 21, September, police received an allegation of criminal damage to an office building in Westmount Road SE9.
“Graffiti had been daubed on the premises the previous day.
“An investigation has been launched and enquiries are ongoing.
“Anyone with information is asked to call 101 quoting CAD 2672/21Sep.”