When 40-year-old Mikhail Gallatinov and 31-year-old Marc Goodman first met while working together at their local bar in the U.K., it was love at first sight. Conveniently, they were also neighbors, which meant they got to see each other all the time. Last week, the two “soul partners” exchanged wedding vows in front of their friends and family members… and 10 prison guards from the Full Sutton Prison in Yorkshire, where both men are currently incarcerated. Their union is the first same-sex wedding to occur in a prison after gay marriage was made legal in the U.K. in March 2014.
Gallatinov, a convicted child molester who prison psychologists have labeled “psychopathic,” is currently serving a 20-year sentence after strangling a 28-year-old man he met on a gay sex hotline in 1997. Goodman is currently serving an 18-year sentence after going on a “gay-bashing spree” and bludgeoning a 57-year-old gay man to death in 2007.
The two men met while working as “bar staff” inside the prison.
Gallatinov’s folks told the Manchester Evening News that they are “proud” of their son for “being a small part of history.”
“If you find love you have to go for it,” his father, Allen Abdulla, said, “even if it is in prison.”
His mother, Christina WIlliams agreed, saying her son was absolutely heartbroken when his last in-prison boyfriend was transferred to a different correctional facility and that she is “glad he’s found love again.”
“Everyone deserves to be happy,” Abdulla added.
But not everyone is pleased about the union.
Tony Benfold, the brother of the man Goodwin murdered, suspects the marriage is just a ploy to gain early release and should not have been permitted, despite the U.K.’s Marriages Act of 1983, which allows prisoners to apply for marriage licenses, and the legalization of same-sex marriage in the U.K. in March of last year.
“How can you go out and kill a man for being gay and then have a gay wedding in prison?” he told the Mirror. “I can’t see any logic in it. It has crossed my mind that this could be a trick to get early release by showing they have built new lives.”
Others think it is a positive thing.
“Marriage is a human right for same-sex couples and even for people whose lives we may find reprehensible,” Peter Tatchell, an ambassador for a U.K. penal reform association, told BuzzFeed News, adding that while Gallatinov and Goodwin “committed horrific murders,” the “aim of prison is to also reform and rehabilitate offenders. … Being in love and married might help stabilize these men; giving them a focus away from a life of crime.”
Congratulations to the happy couple?
Mark Ilvonen
sweet
Kyle G Humbard
Most homophobes are gay
Kevin Green
Good 4them/goodluck
Eric Jimenez
Made for each other… Read their crimes. Disgusting.
AJAnders
20 years for strangling a person. But the other guy gets just 18 years for bludgeoning a man to death?
It’s kind of hard to keep reading after that.
Ryan Friesner
Wee wee smoochers
Adriano Peluso
prison rehab mission worked, this time.
Eli Grove
Cody us
onthemark
“Gallatinov’s folks told the Manchester Evening News that they are ‘proud’ of their son for ‘being a small part of history.’”
How cute, his parents are “proud.” That must please a certain Queerty poster who is absolutely friggin’ obsessed with “parents parents parents parents parents”….
@AJAnders: Yeah – Seems like every time I get embarrassed about weird sentencing and/or prison conditions in the U.S., along comes a nauseating story like this from Britain or Canada to provide some perspective! Barf.
crowebobby
They did it to get Peter Tatchell’s reaction: “See how they’ve changed? Can we let them out now, please?” A variation on the “I’ve found Jesus” ploy.
Alex Rothwell
Interesting. They are gay but hated the gay men they killed.
Billy Budd
They should have got life sentences.
Juan Torred
Darren Field
LubbockGayMale
Their parents are ‘proud’, but didn’t mention how much money the Daily Mail paid for their stories!
MarionPaige
The “marriage” is probably some attempt at a con. Like maybe it is an attempt to keep more of certain assets / property by claiming the property is jointly owned.
Not to be rude but, “a famous musician” took to listing his WIFE as co-author of his music as part of a legal maneuver to keep more of the royalties from his music “in the family” because, otherwise, more of the royalties would have gone to the corporation the musician was contracted to.
Transiteer
So who’s the Bottom?
jason smeds
I don’t think most homophobes are gay but I do think most homophobes have some issues with their own sexuality, and perhaps feel attractions to others of the same sex, attractions which they despise. It’s a form of cognitive dissonance.
Cognitive dissonance is where your moral positions are opposite to your feelings.
Fredrick Bertz
Just goes to show that some of the most virulent homophobes are deluding themselves.
James Carroll
Can’t even read this!!!!
Chuck Knapp
Guess they weren’t so straight. ..hmmm
Larry L Trafford
Someone grab me a hankie
Emily Allgeyer
British prison is jolly good fun if you’re gay: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01mxtsf
Saint Law
@jason smeds: Your posts read like they’re by HAL 9000.
If he’d been a toaster.
barkomatic
They met at a bar in prison?
jwtraveler
Truth is stranger than fiction.
Captain Obvious
I hope the positive comments are trolling, the crimes alone made me want to throw up. They should both have their balls removed and be locked in padded cells with straight jackets on and a mirrored ceiling so they can see how stupid they look for the rest of their miserable lives.
Ron King
Usually they find Yeezus…
jsmu
So would the two murderers be serving sentences which are both under 25 years for their HATE CRIMES had they murdered women?
What a farce.
dave lopes
Where does it say that the victims were killed because they were gay?????
Every gay murder is not a hate crime.
Preston Larson
Hope it don’t last if not gay bash each other its sick not sweet it’s kind of irony
Transiteer
I think we should get to see the ‘wedding night’ activities to see:
1. If it’s genuine and
2. Who’s the bottom
3. Who likes to do what.
Seems fair.
Thomathy
One of these murderers has been labelled psychopathic by psychologists? Psychopaths are not able to be rehabilitated. It’s a good thing that neither of these men may ever get parole, particularly the psychopathic one, and that even should they ever be released into society, they won’t go without regular monitoring. I really do suspect, though, that there is no parole board or judge who will consider either of these men safe for release.
GG
Wow! Their sex must be dynamic and intense – you know, with the whole
wondering-if-your-partner-is going-to-kill-you-at-any-moment thing.
stranded
as long as they’re still serving their sentence, i don’t care much.
NJjoe
Oh, they make such a handsome couple. Their parents must be so proud of how their lives turned out.
Sebizzar
Did half of you even read what got them into prison or?
silveroracle
I don’t condone what they did.
I don’t think the sentence fits the crime.