Infamous Ellesmere Port jailbird Charles Bronson has popped the question to his former Coronation Street star partner, it has been reported.

Former town resident Bronson, 64, is said to have plotted to propose after ordering a ring to be presented to Paula Williamson at her home.

The convicted robber has already taken the marital plunge twice before.

He had planned to serenade Paula during a telephone call from inside HMP Wakefield prison, The Daily Mirror reports.

However, Bronson apparently decided to bring forward his proposal forward because he wanted to go down on one knee when Paula visited him in the Yorkshire jail yesterday.

Paula, 36, said before the meeting: “We are so in love.

“I’ve had relationships with both men and women in the past but none of them come close to my love for Charlie.

“He’s so eccentric, but so am I.

“It’s a perfect match.”

Bronson has been behind bars for 41 years, and all but four of them in solitary confinement, after repeatedly having his sentence increased for attacking prison staff and taking them hostage.

He has taken up art and now goes by the name Charles Salvador, in a nod to his favourite artist Salvador Dali.

The couple are believed to have been in a relationship for five months.

"We feel so strongly about each other"

Paula starred in Coronation Street between 2008 and 2012 as a nurse and other TV shows including Hollyoaks, Scott & Bailey and Emmerdale.

She added: “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.

“There are obviously difficulties him being in prison cause our relationship, but we feel so strongly about each other we’re determined to make it work.”

Paula, of Stoke-on-Trent, wore a necklace spelling out Salvador and a revealing red dress for yesterday’s visit.

She was there for more than two hours and left smiling broadly with friends in a car.

The notorious prisoner grew up in Ellesmere Port and, when aged 13, had his first brush with the law in the town.

At 22, he was jailed for his part in an armed robbery at a Post Office in Little Sutton. He stole £26.18 and was jailed for seven years.

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