Charles Bronson will tie the knot with his soap star girlfriend behind bars TODAY – but won’t get to consummate the marriage
PRISON hardman Charles Bronson will tie the knot with his soap star girlfriend behind bars TODAY – but won’t get to consummate the marriage.
The criminal, 64, dubbed Britain’s most violent prisoner, will be handcuffed to a warden for the ceremony before heading back to his cell as his bride and family and friends party in a nearby hotel.
Ex-Coronation Street actress Paula Williamson, 37, will then head to Malta for their honeymoon without her new husband.
The pair met face-to-face for the first time a year ago and are already planning to have a baby together, despite Bronson not knowing when he will be released from jail.
The would-be bride kept a low profile as she hid from photographers at her home in Stoke-on-Trent yesterday and sped off in a black Range Rover.
She made her final visit to to her jailbird boyfriend as a free woman ahead of their nuptials.
Meanwhile, the wacky invitation sent by Bronson to wedding guests can be revealed.
The invite includes a self-portrait as well as a tribute to his bride which reads: “Paula’s not just a wife, she’s my saviour”.
There is also a tribute to his heroes Ronnie and Reggie Kray: “The Kray twins would be so proud of me”.
And a typical Bronson joke: “Humpty Dumpty never fell - I pushed the fat lazy b*stard.”
A pal said: “This is typical Charlie. He loves drawing and loves a joke.
“He appears besotted with Paula and has described this as the ‘Wedding of the Century’.”
While Paula visited her husband-to-be, pals were spotted loading wedding items into another vehicle, including her wedding dress and flowers.
The actress, who has also appeared in Hollyoaks and Emmerdale, is expected to wear a fairy tale white wedding dress despite tying the knot in such unromantic circumstances.
Just five guests will get to witness Bronson saying "I do" in the strictly controlled two-hour wedding ceremony at 2pm.
It will be the first time Bronson, who is locked up in HMP Wakefield, West Yorks, has worn anything but a prison-issue tracksuit in 25 years.
A pal said yesterday: “Charlie and Paula have been waiting months for their wedding and every single detail has been planned to a tee.
“They know a lot of people think the wedding is just for publicity but they insist they love each other.
“Charlie sees the wedding as a chance to convince parole bosses that he has turned over a new leaf and is ready to be released.
“They talk a lot about what they are going to do when he gets released, but for now they are just looking forward to being man and wife.”
Armed robber Bronson has spent 41 years behind bars, including 37 in solitary confinement, after a string of brutal attacks on prison guards.
Paula, who previously exchanged letters and gifts with Moors Murderer Ian Brady, began writing to Bronson in 2013.
She told Nick Ferrari on LBC on Friday: “We would love [to spend our wedding night together] but obviously that’s not going to happen with where he is now.”
Bronson was first jailed for seven years in 1974 for armed robbery but after being released, found himself locked up again for planning another robbery.
Since then, he has seen his sentence increased to an indefinite term following a number of incidents where he took prison staff hostage.
In 2009, his incredible life story was even plastered across the big screen as Hollywood A Lister Tom Hardy portrayed him in biopic Bronson.
Bronson has been married twice - to first wife Irene in 1971 before divorcing five years later, and women’s shelter worker Fatema Saira Rehman in 2001, before divorcing four years later.
In 2015, he proposed to then-girlfriend Lorraine Etherington, 44, who described him as the “most wonderful gentleman I’ve ever met”.
But their relationship broke down in early 2016, before Paula Williamson caught his heart in autumn.
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