Charles Bronson granted public parole hearing

Charles Bronson, who uses the name Salvador, has served more than 40 years behind bars since his original conviction in 1974

One of the UK's longest-serving prisoners has been granted a Parole Board hearing which will take place in public next year.

Charles Bronson, 69, who now uses the name Salvador, is serving a life term at HMP Woodhill in Buckinghamshire.

Reforms in the law allowing hearings to take place in public were introduced in July.

The Parole Board said it granted an application made by his lawyers for his latest case review is heard in public.

Luton-born Bronson was originally convicted of armed robbery in 1974 and developed a reputation as a violent and dangerous inmate.

In 1999 he took a prison education worker hostage and was sentenced to life.

He was further sentenced in 2000 to a discretionary life term, with a minimum of four years, for taking a prison teacher hostage for 44 hours at HMP Hull.

Since then the Parole Board has repeatedly refused to direct his release.

In 2020, Bronson won a court case arguing for a public parole hearing, and since then the rules have been changed to allow some to be held in public.

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In a document setting out the decision for a public hearing, 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."

Bronson's case is yet to be listed and a date for the hearing has not been set, but the Parole Board said it is expected to take place early next year.

Russell Causley, who murdered his wife, Carole Packman, in the 1980s and never revealed where he hid her body, is set to become the first prisoner in UK history to have a public Parole Board hearing.

He was freed in 2020 but sent back to jail last year after breaching his licence conditions.

The hearing, originally listed for October, is expected to take place next month.

Two other applications for cases to be heard in public have been rejected and three are still being considered, the Parole Board said.