Daily Mail
July 6, 2014
A British mother is to pack up and leave her three children behind to make a whole new life with a violent US prisoner she met online.
Jennifer Butler, 29, will leave the UK and travel to French Robertson Unit in Texas to marry Christopher Mosier, 23 and leave her three young children all younger than 10 with their father.
The besotted woman will move in with Mosier when he is released on parole in September and denied she is making a mistake.
‘Some people might think I’m bonkers for falling in love with a prisoner. And not everyone will agree with our relationship,’ Butler said to The Sun. ‘But Chris is a wonderful man. Sure, he made a few mistakes in the past, but everybody deserves a second chance.’
The single mother started writing to Mosier in July after she found his profile on the website, writeaprisoner.com, which unites would be pen-pals to inmates online.
His honest profile revealed that he had been sentenced to 15 years in 2009 for burglary with deadly conduct and also had prior drug convictions.
Butler’s future husband also was a member of an armed gang, but she said that she felt an instant connection with him and was struck by his honesty.
‘I felt sorry for him being locked up, nobody to talk to except other prisoners. Of course, I didn’t condone his crimes. But he was still a human being, and deserved to have a friend,’ Butler said to The Sun.
‘I was really intrigued by his profile. It was different to the rest. Most of the guys were posing with their tops off. But his was articulate and he was open about his crime.’
The love-struck couple began writing to each other three times a week but suddenly in June 2013, Butler stopped receiving letters.
‘I felt really sad that I hadn’t heard from him. That’s when I realised my feelings for him ran a lot deeper. I no longer saw him as just a friend anymore,’ Butler said to The Sun.
‘Then a month later I received a letter from him. He told me that the prison had been on lockdown so he had not been able to get stamps to write to me,’ the smitten mom said.
‘I realized I was in love with him and that letter made me admit it to myself. I couldn’t bear to lose him.’
As their love-affair blossomed, Butler even got her three children – Tyler, 8, Tristan, 7 and Mia, 4, to write to Mosier too.
The prisoner started to receive letters from the children with drawings for his cell that they had made.
Butler said that she believes it is really important that her children come to know Mosier because she will spend the rest of her life with him.
Eventually, Butler had saved enough money from her job as a part-time sales assistant to travel to Texas to see Mosier.
Butler made her first visit to the prison in October, but sadly, Mosier had been involved in a fight with an inmate and had his visiting rights revoked. He had to speak to Butler through a glass screen.
‘We weren’t allowed to touch because he was a maximum security prisoner at the time,’ said Butler to The Sun.
‘We had a glass window between us and had to talk through a phone. When I saw him walking down the corridor I knew he was the man for me. We talked for four hours and it felt like I’d known him all my life.’
Eventually, Butler’s affair with her prison lover caused controversy with her family who began to worry for her children.
‘I knew people wouldn’t have a good thing to say because he is an inmate. If he was just a guy from America I’d met online it would be different,’ Butler said.
‘I’ve had people ask why I’m not worried for the safety of my children. That cut me deep. To think that because he’s a criminal my children would be at risk hurt me. Chris is a brilliant man. He’s not a dangerous criminal. He’s learnt from his mistakes,’ she said.