Charles Bronson’s ball and chain...
Coronation Street actress marries the most violent inmate in Britain
BRITAIN’S most violent prisoner married his actress girlfriend in a bizarre ceremony behind bars yesterday.
Charles Bronson, 64, who has spent 41 years in jail, married Paula Williamson, 37, inside Wakefield prison in West Yorkshire.
The couple had been together five months and had met just four times when the armed robber popped the question in February. Miss Williamson, who previously corresponded with Moors murderer Ian Brady, was driven to the wedding by a Bronson look-a-like with a documentary crew in tow.
She wore a meringue-style bridal gown, with her face hidden under a purple blanket as she entered the prison gates.
It is understood Miss Williamson, who played a nurse in Coronation Street and a stripper in Emmerdale, has signed an exclusive photo rights deal with a Sunday newspaper. A mobility scooter driven by a woman dressed in a cream, pinstripe suit, led the wedding procession.
A suit had been delivered for the groom earlier in the day. The convict, who has changed his name to Charles Salvador in tribute to his favourite artist Salvador Dali, was apparently even ‘excited’ just to wear trousers with a zip.
According to Miss Williamson, it will be the first time he has worn anything other than a prison-issue tracksuit in over two decades. The pair were expected to tie the knot at the prison’s Catholic chapel before a handful of witnesses. Other
‘Conjugal visits are banned’
guests arrived in a black Saab emblazoned with the words ‘ Free Charles Salvador’ on the bonnet.
The couple exchanged rings with CPS engraved on them – standing for Charlie and Paula Salvador– which, ironically, is also the acronym for the Crown Prosecution Service. Bronson, who was set to be handcuffed to a guard during the twohour service, was also due to surprise Miss Williamson with a song, as he did when he proposed by singing ‘My Way’.
Conjugal visits are banned in British jails so the couple will not be able to consummate their marriage. But Miss Williamson has declared she is ‘willing to wait’.
The actress was driven away from the prison in a silver Mercedes with ‘ Just Married’ bunting taped to the boot.
Last night she celebrated the wedding breakfast with family and friends, but without her new husband, at the threestar York House Hotel, close to the prison. She is also planning a ‘ honeymoon’ to Malta without Bronson.
A bizarre sign, in which Bronson urged young offenders to think twice before embarking on a life of crime, was put up outside the hotel.
The message, said there was ‘no glamour’ in prison and urged people to say ‘ no’ to crime for the sake of ‘your mum’.
Miss Williamson, who began writing to the convict after reading a book about his life in 2013, is the career criminal’s third wife. Originally called Michael Peterson, he first renamed himself after Death Wish actor Charles Bronson on the advice of a boxing promoter in the 1980s.