Liverpool's most notorious prisoner Charles Bronson has "fallen for" a former model after they struck up a relationship.
Bronson, who has spent more than 45 years behind bars, began a relationship with Gemma Fernandez through letters and video calls and was even allowed a visit after covid restrictions ceased.
Now, she is campaigning for his release, the Mirror reports.
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The 69-year-old moved to Ellesmere Port when he was a teenager and is considered Britain’s most violent criminal.
While serving time in Walton Prison, he attacked a fellow prisoner with a glass jug and had an extra nine months added to his sentence for unlawful wounding.
His violent behaviour continued and he is now a high-risk inmate at HMP Woodhill, Bucks.
Former model Gemma, who says she has posed for FHM Magazine, started writing to him after watching Tom Hardy play him in 2008 movie Bronson.
A prison source confirmed to the Mirror that "they’re very close. She had her first visit in December. They posed for pictures and everything.”
The model, in her 30s, told a true crime YouTube channel that Bronson “has a big heart”.
With Bronson's persistent bad behaviour behind bars, he is likely to struggle to convince a parole board that he is no danger to society, which is what he would have to do to secure a release from prison.
But Gemma said: "He’s a reformed character. He cares about people. He’s such a nice bloke.
"Years ago I wanted to write to him after seeing the film and I never really did.
"But with the lockdown happening and everyone suffering with their mental health I thought, ‘He’s been banged up for 46 years, I need to write’."
A petition website has been launched called Free Charlie Official.
Upon visiting his secure unit, Gemma went on to say: "It was lovely to see him. I gave him a massive hug. He hasn’t had a hug in two years, so it was really, really nice. He was all excited, he took my jacket off, he’s a gentleman.
"He was supposed to sit in a chair six feet away but apparently he walked into the room before I got there and said, ‘no way, I’m not having that’ and dragged a chair from across the room. It was amazing. I thought it was quite a comfortable, cosy setting."
Her friendship with Bronson – now calling himself Charles Salvador – comes just four years after he married former soap actress Paula Williamson, 37, inside Wakefield Prison, West Yorks.
But they later divorced and in July 2019 she was found dead.
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