MOURNERS have worn black and pink to pay tribute to Paula Williamson as she was today buried on her 39th birthday – but her ex Charles Bronson didn’t attend. The Coronation Street actress was laid to rest with pink roses at the service after she was found dead at her Stoke home in July. Family […]
MOURNERS have worn black and pink to pay tribute to Paula Williamson as she was today buried on her 39th birthday – but her ex Charles Bronson didn’t attend.
The Coronation Street actress was laid to rest with pink roses at the service after she was found dead at her Stoke home in July.
Family and friends this afternoon gathered at the church in Stoke to farewell the Coronation Street actress.
But Bronson was not among those heading to the service, previously saying he wanted to “avoid the media circus”.
The notorious lag – who has been behind bars for the past 44 years – had previously revealed hopes he would be able to attend the funeral.
Yet he later said the service at the St Saviour’s Smallthorne parish should be a private affair.
Writing in a letter ahead of the funeral, he said he was “truly shocked” about her death.
He said: “A funeral should be a private thing and my presence there would only turn it into a media circus and I’m sure her family and friends don’t want that.”
The bare-knuckle boxer also denied the suggestion he’d applied for permission to go to her funeral.
Any prisoner can apply for a special purposes licence to leave jail for a maximum of four nights for a funeral, marriage or medical treatment.
A funeral should be a private thing and my presence there would only turn it into a media circus and I’m sure her family and friends don’t want that
Charles Bronson
However, Bronson was unlikely to have been granted permission due to his extensive violent history at HMP Woodhill.
Bronson said his new relationship wasn’t the reason behind her death, saying: “She’d found someone else too and had even shown me photos of the matching tattoos she’d had done with her new geezer.”
The 38-year-old’s body was found after announcing she had applied to have her marriage to Britain’s most violent lag annulled.
The young woman had tragically given her heartbroken mum Hazel instructions for her funeral, saying she would inevitably die young.
In her will, she said she wanted an open casket at her funeral and for her coffin to be taken to the crematorium in a horse-drawn carriage.
In a typically flamboyant move she stipulated that the horses must be black with pink plumes attached to their reins.
Her spokesman said: “A post-mortem has been conducted on her body and it has now been released to her family for her funeral.
“It will take place at the Carmountside Crematorium in Stoke on what would have been her 39th birthday.
“She wanted an open casket. We are trying to honour her wishes but are in discussions with the funeral directors about that.
“The funeral itself will be as flamboyant as her life was. She had many ups and downs but we’ll be there to celebrate her life.”
Armed robber Bronson has spent more than 44 years behind bars after repeatedly having his sentence increased for attacking prison staff and taking them hostage.
Writing in his 2000 book Bronson, he said: “I’m a nice guy, but sometimes I lose all my senses and become nasty. That doesn’t make me evil, just confused”.
He was first sentenced to seven years in jail over an armed robbery in 1974.
That was extended by nine months after he attacked a fellow prisoner with a glass jug.
He was then given an extra year in jail for holding a three-day rooftop protest that cost £100,000 in damages.
After a brief stint of freedom, he was found guilty of intent to robbery and sentenced to eight years in 1992.
His sentence was extended by eight years after he held a prison staff member hostage.
He again became involved in a hostage situation, which again resulted in a sentence extension.
He was finally given a life sentence after kidnapping a prison teacher in 1999, with the violent lag investigated for a number of other disturbances since, including allegedly throwing a bottle of human waste at a Muslim prisoner.
An inquest heard she had been found on July 30 by her new partner, sick and unconscious with “two small bags of white powder stuck to her.”
Partner Peter Jones previously told The Sun Online how he found Paula, saying he tried to kiss her awake.
Ms Williamson, who said last month she and Mr Bronson had applied to have their marriage annulled, had played minor roles in Coronation Street and Emmerdale.
She met the renowned criminal in prison in late 2016, and they were married in November 2017.
After they revealed their split, Bronson, 66, announced he wanted to wed again.
