Security change allowed jail wedding

By MONIQUE DEVEREUX

Coral Branch was married in a white dress, her new husband Scott kissed her and two invited witnesses watched as the couple cut their wedding cake with a knife.

She now wears an old engagement and wedding ring borrowed from a friend, but when her husband leaves prison - not likely until 2016 - they will choose rings of their own.

She was expecting publicity about the marriage but not for it to happen so soon. She is not planning to sell her story - she says she married for love, not money.

About 18 months ago when the couple first applied to be married, prison protocol meant there could be no kiss and security concerns did not allow potential weapons. The ceremony was not allowed because it was not deemed to be "in good order".

Convicted double murderer Watson wed the Rotorua woman in the prison chapel last month, after a change in his security classification.

On arrival at Auckland Prison in Albany in 1999 he was placed in the maximum-security unit. Inmates are not allowed contact visits and would not be allowed to handle knives.

Recently, Watson was reassessed as medium security and shifted to the West division.

His re-application to wed "followed pretty quickly the reduction in the security classification", says Corrections general manager of public prisons Phil McCarthy.

Since the Herald publicised the wedding, emails and calls from people associated with other medium-security prisoners have claimed that Watson boasted he was allowed to consummate the marriage.

But Mr McCarthy is adamant there was "no question" of conjugal rights.

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