Convicted homophobic killers become UK's first gay couple to marry in prison

Full Sutton Prison in East Yorkshire saw history being created on Friday, when two murders got married. Meet murderers Mikhail Gallatinov, 40 and Marc Goodwin, 31, who are the first same sex married couple behind bars, after The Marriages Act of 1983 allowed prisoners to apply to be married.

In March 2014, post the legalisation of same-sex marriage in the UK, it was also made legal for inmates in the same prison to marry each other, according to  Buzzfeed .

Here’s the clincher: Machester Evening News reports Gallatinov , who is a registered child sex offender, was imprisoned in 1997 for murdering a Manchester gay local after he met him in an online chat. Goodwin, on the other hand, was sentenced to life behind bars in 2007 for a “gay-bashing killing in Blackpool.”

The newly weds won’t be able to share a cell though. In this report by Mirror UK, it was said that the couple had considered a civil partnership until a change in the law in March last year made homosexual marriage legal in Britain.

“‘We are very clear that if prisoners do get married, the taxpayer does not foot the bill for the ceremony and they are certainly not allowed to share a cell,’ said a Prison Service spokesman, according to the report.

Nothing short of a movie plot, Goodwin and Gallatinov fell for each other over the past two years, and their ceremony was sealed with a kiss and a cake . They bought metal bands made within the prison, and claimed they were “soul partners” who would be “forever together.”

A source who visits prison regularly also told the Guardian UK  that the relationship between these two had been well known inside the jail. “These two guys were on separate wings at Full Sutton and used to meet – and have sex – in the prison library. Then they managed to get on the same wing and had sex regularly,” she said.