Why I’m marrying Britain’s most violent prisoner
By the soap actress who says Charles Bronson – who’s spent 43 years in jail – is her perfect man. Nuts? Publicity hungry? Or true love!!
AS ROMANCES go, it wasn’t a bad start. She complimented him on his surprisingly delicate hands; he poured her a cup of tea from his flask. Then he softly asked: ‘Paula, shall we dance?’ She accepted, heart pounding with emotion.
He held her close and they waltzed round the room, gazing into each other’s eyes, oblivious to everything but one another. Then they paused and embraced, before kissing on the lips.
Just as their emotions were beginning to run away with them, the spell was broken by the prison guard sitting in the corner, saying: ‘Charlie, time’s up!’
For this was no traditional date and the couple weren’t waltzing round a ballroom — rather the stark surroundings of the segregation unit at HMP Wakefield.
Our smitten Juliet is Paula Williamson, a 36-year-old former soap actress.
And our dashing Romeo? Charles Bronson, 64, one of Britain’s most notorious criminals, famous for his handlebar moustache and violent temper, who has served 43 years behind bars.
As the guard separated our star-crossed lovers after their unexpected waltz in November last year, Bronson was led back to solitary confinement.
Paula, as she recounts today, was left more in love than ever. Leaving the prison in West Yorkshire, known locally as Monster Mansion on account of the vast number of murderers and sex offenders who reside there, she says she felt as though she were walking on air.
Today, twinkling from Paula’s left hand is a white gold and diamond ring, presented to her this Monday when Bronson proposed to her. It was just the fourth time the pair had met.
Bronson, apparently, had wanted to pop the question on Tuesday, Valentine’s Day, but it wasn’t his day for visits.
Paula accepted without hesitation. She proudly shows me the ring given to her by the former jewel thief and recounts the tale of their bizarre love affair.
‘Charlie phoned me to ask me my ring size and he couldn’t hear me, and I kept saying: “K, it’s K.” And he said: “Eh, oh, like our Ronnie Kray.’
(Bronson has happy memories of his friendship with the gangster when they were both at Broadmoor, the institution for the criminally insane).
‘I’m madly in love with Charlie and he’s madly in love with me,’ says Paula. ‘But even I can’t believe I’m marrying Britain’s most notorious prisoner.’
SHE giggles. It may all sound rather amusing, but the truth of Bronson’s life is anything but. Initially jailed for armed robbery, he has also been involved in a string of violent episodes while in prison, including attacks on guards and other inmates, as well as more than a dozen hostage-taking incidents.
And it’s unlikely Paula’s thoroughly respectable parents — her mum is a retired lab technician, and dad a retired postman — can see the funny side.
‘My mum’s concerned,’ says Paula, her face clouding momentarily. ‘But Dad says, at 36, he can’t tell me how to live my life. Ultimately, they just want me to be happy.’
The plan is for the couple to get married on Paula’s birthday in August. Where will they tie the knot? ‘It’ll have to be at prison, depending where he is at that time,’ she says, ‘but I’m hoping we can have a Catholic ceremony in the chapel.
‘Charlie’s already talking about what colour suit he’s going to wear. I want it to be a traditional white wedding.’
Of course. Then, after they are declared man and wife, will permission be granted for them to spend time alone to consummate the marriage?
‘Unfortunately not,’ says Paula. ‘I’d very happily spend the night with Charlie in his cell, but it’s not allowed.’
So they’ll have to wait for Charlie to be released, if he ever is, before they can live properly as man and wife.
However, Paula and Charlie haven’t allowed anything to stand in the way of daydreams about their future.
They plan to buy a stone cottage in the countryside. There will be lots of animals and Charlie, an accomplished artist (he has renamed himself Charles Salvador in homage to the great artist, Dali), will sketch.
They’ve even talked about having children. ‘We just want to be a normal couple,’ says Paula.
There can be no doubt she knows what she’s getting into. Bronson’s story is well told.
Born Michael Peterson, he was originally jailed for seven years in 1974 after committing a robbery at a Post Office with a sawn-off shotgun.
His 43-year stretch is thanks to a string of subsequent violent incidents inside prison.
Released in 1988, he spent just 69 days on the outside before being arrested for robbery. In 1992 he was released again and this time lasted 53 days before returning to jail for conspiracy to rob.
So what is it that Paula likes about him?
She says she was struck by ‘a fire behind his eyes — in a good way’ when they met.
Still, there can be little doubt that Paula, who has admitted to long-term relationships with men and women, hasn’t hesitated to capitalise on the attention she’s received for her liaison with Bronson.
She wore a very revealing tight red dress and nude stilettoes as she walked into HMP Wakefield on Monday to receive her proposal — handily captured by a tabloid photographer outside.
So who alerted the Press to her visit? None other than Paula herself, who has had television roles in Coronation Street, Hollyoaks and Emmerdale, in the latter playing a stripper.
But she insists she was thinking only of Bronson, not herself.
‘I approached the media as Charlie and I want to show the public he really is a changed man, that we are in love and want him to start to work back through the prison system towards his eventual release.’
So how on earth did Bronson and Paula meet?
As is usually the case when twin souls collide, it was all down to fate.
Paula was browsing in Waterstones one day in 2013 when she felt herself drawn to the book Bronson had written about life at Broadmoor.
‘I’ve long been fascinated by criminology,’ explains Paula. ‘Something made me pick up Charlie’s book. I read it in two days. It had me laughing out loud and crying in parts. The man’s spirit is phenomenal.
‘A few days later I wrote Charlie a letter telling him I found his book really inspiring.
‘I didn’t intend to enter into a correspondence. I’m not one of those women who write to men on Death Row or the like. But Charlie wrote back and thanked me, and our friendship went from there.’
They corresponded regularly. Paula insists she was not thinking of romance at this stage — not least because Bronson announced his engagement to Lorraine Etherington, 44, in 2015. She was secretary of the Charles Bronson Art Foundation, set up to promote his artworks and raise money for charity.
Indeed, despite his incarceration, Bronson has been more romantically active than many free men. There have been two other fiancees and two wives, the first, Irene, to whom he was married before he was sent to jail and with whom he has a son.
HOWEVER, at some point, the engagement to Etherington was terminated. Then, in a letter sent to Paula last May, he said: ‘How do you fancy meeting me?’ and she replied: ‘Yeah, I fancy that.’
But going on a first date turned out to be rather complicated.
After making an application to the prison to see him, Paula received a visit from the police at her semi-detached property in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. Police checks were made and it was six months before a date was finally set.
Finally, last November, Paula travelled to Wakefield, accompanied by a friend of Bronson’s, Shaun Baskerville. Before being admitted, Paula had to submit to a very thorough search. ‘They look behind your ears, inside your mouth. There are sniffer dogs. It all felt very bleak — there was lots of concrete. It started to hit me what I was actually doing.’
With some trepidation, Paula entered the segregation unit. In the corner, in jogging pants and T-shirt, was that instantly — familiar face.
‘He was jogging on the spot and punching the air in the way boxers do when warming up,’ recalls Paula.
‘What struck me first was his eyes, which were deep green. He’d been fretting because I was late and he said: “Where have you been, where have you been?”
‘I just said: “Oh, come here,” and hugged him. I felt as though I’d met him before.
‘I sat on one side of the table and he sat on the other. From that moment, there was a spark. He had hot water in a flask and poured me a cup of tea.
He looked incredibly fit and strong. But what struck me about him, apart from his eyes, was his hands. He has artists’ hands. They looked really soft and he had nice nails. I said: “You’ve got the nicest hands, you know,” and I picked them up and held them. He replied: “Thank you, no one has ever said that to me before.”
‘Charlie wanted to know everything. What did I have for breakfast? What car did I drive here in? He’s like a sponge, he wants to know everything going on in the outside world. ‘Then he asked me to dance.’ Bronson had brought his radio, and despite the fact
their soundtrack was the football results, they acted as though it was a romantic waltz.
‘We were holding each other very close. His eyes were looking deep into mine. Then he kissed me.
‘When we left I had such an adrenaline rush. As we got to the car, his friend Shaun said to me: “I can see you two ending up together.” I felt really happy.’
After that first meeting, Bronson, who is permitted the use of a phone which is put through a trap door into his cell, began calling Paula. Soon they were talking four times a week. But at the next visit in December, Paula found herself in a room which had bars down the middle. On the other side, was Charlie. Why? Well, smiles Paula ruefully, Bronson had ‘done something he shouldn’t’.
‘He’d thrown a cup of urine over another prisoner, a murderer — he knew it was wrong,’ adds Paula, quickly. ‘It was all planned between them. The prisoner had said if Charlie did that, he would be able to make a compensation claim, and he’d pass some of the money Charlie’s way.
‘Charlie thought if he could get some money, he could buy his mum, who’s 86, something nice.’ Despite the visiting room restrictions, ‘the chemistry was undeniable’, says Paula, and they managed to snatch a kiss through the bars. However, their relationship status had not been clarified and during one subsequent phone call Paula challenged him about his intentions.
‘He said: “Of course we’re together, you’re my soulmate.” I told him I felt the same way.’
‘Charlie sometimes has me crying with laughter,’ adds Paula. ‘We were talking about the programme, Neighbours From Hell, and he said: “They think they’ve got it bad, my neighbour’s a cannibal!”
‘Another time, he said: “You think you’re sane, but I know I’m sane — I’ve got the certificate to prove it.” (Charlie was once declared insane, but it has since been decided officially that he is actually sane).
‘He uses Cockney rhyming slang a lot and it was hard to keep up at first. For example, when he started talking about when his “jam roll” [parole] was going to come up, I had no idea what he was talking about.’
Following their third meeting in January, Paula got an emotional phone call from Bronson. ‘He told me he wanted to be with me for ever, that he loved me, needed me and wanted to get engaged.
‘I joked that he was a naughty boy, he wasn’t supposed to tell me. But he said he was so excited he couldn’t help himself.
‘He got his friend to go around jewellers and take pictures of rings, which he sent into the prison. Charlie chose the one he liked and Rod, his friend, bought it.
‘Charlie says: “I saved up my prison money for 25 years for that ring!”’ As for the manner of his proposal, Paula says: ‘He made a little speech. He said: “All my life I have been searching for someone who truly understands me, who loves me for me, and me them for them. There’s no one like us and there never will be. I love you Paula. Will you be my missus?”’ How could she refuse? Then, just for good measure, Bronson called the next day, Valentine’s Day, and sang his own version of Frank Sinatra’s My Way, which he’d changed to Our Way. Paula was choked with emotion. During the many days they’re separated, she’s terribly lonely and says the time has come for his release.
‘In 2000 he was sentenced to life with a tariff of three to four years, which means he has served 14 years over his sentence,’ says Paula.
‘I don’t know why. I think Charlie’s been lost in the system. He’s a victim of his own infamy. He’s become a caricature of himself, really.
‘What really upsets me is when people think Charlie’s a serial killer. He was sent to jail for armed robbery.
‘I know he’s done things in prison, and we have spoken about that. He admits he has lost his temper but has acted under extreme provocation.
‘Charlie is a changed man. It is my hope that he will be released by my 40th birthday, in August 2020.’
One can’t help but feel that if he’s still on the outside by her 41st birthday, they’ll be doing well.