The three-member parole panel which heard the case also refused to recommend that the 70-year-old be transferred to a category ‘D’, or ‘open’ prison, with less stringent security and the opportunity to spend time in the community. The parole board said he was a persistent rule-breaker whose behaviour had been ‘callous’. He has an appalling record of violence, including attacks on prison staff, and although there are signs he has mellowed in the last few years and is better able to control his anger and frustration, the evidence was clear: he is not ready to be let out of prison. Salvador, whose birth name is Michael Peterson and who was previously known as Charles Bronson, has spent most of the past 50 years in custody. The conclusions that the parole panel reached were not rocket science, they were just common sense But the outcome came as no surprise to me, nor I suspect many of the others who had watched his parole hearing by video-link at the Royal Courts of Justice in London in March. The letter delivered last week to Mr Charles Salvador, of HMP Woodhill, from the parole board did not bring him the news he wanted – it said his request to be released from prison had been turned down.
