It's Valentine's Day so love is in the air - even for the UK's most violent criminal. Sixty-four-year old Charles Bronson got down on one knee a few days ago when his actress girlfriend Paula Williamson came to visit him in HMP Wakefield and popped the question.
And it looks like she said yes.
Bronson has spent most of his life in prison - he was first jailed in '74, and has spent 41 years behind bars, and 37 in solitary confinement.
But he still managed to get an actress girlfriend. Actually, he's been married a couple of times before, the first time was when he wasn't in prison but the second time a woman called Fatema Saira Rehman saw his picture in the paper and visited him in prison ten times before they got married. It lasted four years.
But onto wife number three! Paula is thirty-six-years old, and is "determined to make it work" with her boyfriend of five months.
Tom Hardy portrayed Bronson on screen. Credit: WikiCommons
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She's had a few bit parts in soaps including Hollyoaks, Coronation Street and Emmerdale, as well quite worryingly a drama about the murders committed by Fred and Rose West. I think it's safe to say she's interested in violent people.
"He's so eccentric, but so am I," she said. "It's a perfect match. I know he has a public image of being a violent prisoner, but in reality he is so different.
'He can never change the things he has done in the past, but he is working so hard to put that behind him.'
She added: 'There are obviously difficulties that him being in prison cause our relationship, but we feel so strongly about each other we're determined to make it work."
Well, that's commitment.
Bronson had planned to have a ring delivered to Paula's house and then sing to her over the phone, according to The Sun. Er, lovely. Nothing more romantic than someone in prison for life singing to you.
But he changed his plans to he could propose face-to-face.
Paula left HMP Wakefield in a necklace emblazoned with "Salvador" which is the name he goes by in prison. Apparently he wooed her with some of his art...
Criminal Record
So what does a man have to do to become known as the UK's most dangerous prisoner?
He started off as a petty criminal, was imprisoned for seven years the first time and then he became a bare-knuckle boxer. He went back to prison for a planned robbery, was incredibly violent inside, then he was done for numerous hostage situations - and now has life. Bronson has spent periods detained in Rampton, Broadmoor and Ashworth high-security psychiatric hospitals. He's been made famous by the media, featuring in articles, interviews, books and even a biopic called Bronson starring Tom Hardy.
He's dedicated to exercising in confined spaces describing himself as a "solitary fitness survivor" and also being an artist - he changed his name to Salvador Bronson because he loves Salvador Dali so much.
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Words Laura Hamilton
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