Irene Dunroe, the former wife of prisoner Charles Bronson, has been banned from visiting him at HMP Wakefield after being deemed a risk to security and safety.
Ms Dunroe, 73, said she had received a letter informing her that she had been removed from Bronson’s approved visitor and telephone lists.
“What threat could I pose? That I’m going to batter them with a sex toy from work? It’s completely stupid. I am a pensioner who goes to visit him using my bus pass,” she said.
Ms Dunroe works in an Ann Summers shop and said she planned to challenge the decision. She said she would continue writing to Bronson, although she was concerned that her letters might go missing.
“I am part of his support network, which he really needs right now as he’s going for parole,” she said. “He is hopeful of getting it. He’s old now. He just wants a bit of peace.”
The couple married as teenagers in 1971 and divorced four years later, after Bronson was first jailed for armed robbery. They have remained close, and Ms Dunroe has continued visiting him during his years in prison.
Bronson, who is legally known as Charles Salvador, has spent a total of 52 years behind bars. His sentences have included convictions relating to violence, grievous bodily harm, hostage-taking and false imprisonment.
Ms Dunroe said his behaviour had changed since his move to HMP Wakefield, where he is held in conditions amounting to solitary confinement for 23 hours a day.
She said he would usually sing Frank Sinatra songs and ballads such as When Will I See You Again during her visits, but had recently become quieter.
Bronson was moved to the maximum-security prison after attacking another prisoner. He is not allowed to associate with other inmates and uses the gym and shower facilities alone.
In July, he staged a sit-down protest in an exercise yard after becoming angry when he was served apple crumble without custard, according to the account of the incident.
Prison officers in riot gear were eventually called to return him to his cell in the segregation unit. It was said that three teams of guards surrounded him before the stand-off ended.
Bronson was first imprisoned in 1974, aged 22, and has spent much of his life behind bars following attacks on warders and prisoners at a number of jails.
