Bronson parole bid denied as it’s revealed he faked having a long-lost son in elaborate hoax
CHARLES Bronson pretended a paparazzo was his long-lost son as part of an elaborate PR hoax, it has emerged.
As Bronson, 70, discovered yesterday that the Parole Board has rejected his latest plea for freedom, it was revealed that he and photographer George Bamby had managed to deceive the authorities and media.
Bamby was given unprecedented access to the prisoner, appeared on a Channel 4 documentary as Bronson’s long-lost child and has claimed the ruse had made him ‘a lot of money’.
Last night the convict’s brother Mark Peterson said he would ‘never forgive’ Bronson for convincing their 93-year-old mother, eira, that Bamby was her grandson. ‘It was massively disrespectful for Charlie and Bamby to [do what they did to] my mum,’ he told the Daily Mail. ‘To try and convince her that he was actually her grandson. It is an awful thing to do.’
Mr Peterson said he never believed Bamby’s lies, adding: ‘A few friends put £5,000 together and contacted Bamby and said do a DNA test and we will give you £5,000 towards your chosen charity, and he declined.’
The Parole Board said Bronson would not be freed from prison, nor would he be considered for a move from Category A HMP Woodhill to an open prison, saying he has a tendency to minimise responsibility for his violent behaviour.
Now calling himself Charles Salvador, he was first jailed in 1974 for seven years for armed robbery but – aside from two brief spells of freedom – has spent most of the past 48 years in prison after repeated hostage-taking and violent outbursts.
Mr Peterson said the revelations about Bamby, who regularly visited Bronson and shared their videocalls with the Press, would probably damage Bronson’s chances at his next parole review in two years.