I formed friendship with Britain’s most violent inmate Charles Bronson after watching film on his vicious past
A FORMER model has told how she formed a close friendship with notorious prisoner Charles Bronson after watching a film about his vicious past.
Gemma Fernandez, who is in her 30s, decided to contact Bronson in jail after watching Tom Hardy play him in the 2008 movie Bronson.
The infamous lag, 69, is considered Britain’s most violent criminal, with crimes including armed robbery and attacks on other inmates.
He is currently serving time as a high risk inmate at HMP Woodhill, Bucks., and is fighting to have a parole hearing in public.
But new pal Gemma, who has reportedly posed for FHM Magazine, is now campaigning for his release.
She told Steve Wraith’s true crime YouTube channel: “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’.
“He’s a reformed character. He cares about people. He’s such a nice bloke.”
Bronson is currently fighting to have a parole hearing held in public.
And Gemma says “we just need to get him home”.
Writing about the first time she visited Bronson behind a petition website called Free Charlie Official, Gemma added: “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.”
Gemma’s online profile describes her as an actor and presenter and says she posed for Maxim and FHM in shoots across the UK and Europe.
She says she speaks to Bronson, who was born Michael Gordon Peterson but now goes by the name Charles Salvador, most days.
A prison source told : “They’re very close.
“She had her first visit in December. They posed for pictures and everything.”
Gemma and Bronson’s friendship comes just four years after he married former soap actress Paula Williamson, 37, inside Wakefield Prison, West Yorks.
The pair later divorced and Paula sadly died in July 2019.
