penfriend

"Mum has always wanted to meet her American penfriend, it was on her bucket list and one of her lifelong regrets they'd never met up," she said.

Twenty-one-year-old Lorna Fitzpatrick has been writing to her American penfriend since she was 11.

It was awkward, though, when her penfriend sent a note to her boyfriend saying: "You better look after her - I'm on death row, so I know people."

Epstein was disappointed - he wanted more than a penfriend, let's be frank - but she was warm and friendly.

“I know there are others. Never met anyone who went to one, though. Bill had a penfriend at a school in Brazil. . . this was years and years ago . . . and he wanted to go on an exchange trip but Mum and Dad couldn’t afford it. His penfriend got all offended when he said he wasn’t going and sent him a cursed hat. It made his ears shrivel up.”