He says he's proud of the way his children have coped, but he knows that's not enough. "I feel sorry for my kids because they are never ever going to have a real father-and-son or father-and-daughter relationship with me. But at least I'm honest enough to admit that to myself."

It's a punishing honesty, for everybody. He tells me about the time his daughter broke down on him. "She said, 'Where are you going', and I said, 'I'm going to see Jimmy Robinson [one of four men imprisoned for the murder of Carl Bridgewater, but whose convictions were quashed in 1997 after they had served 17 years] in prison'. My daughter just lost it; she was hysterical. She said to me, 'Dad, I don't have many memories of you when you went away, but I tell you what, I've got lots of memories after you went. I remember being locked up in homes, being spat at, being locked in cupboards, being thrown into baths of cold water.'" He comes to a stop. "My kids ended up in a home. You hear all this bollocks about kids from broken homes, but our families weren't broken, they were torn to pieces overnight. Within a matter of days we were the most hated people in the country and our families suffered all that."

Hill says his family got it worse because he was so well known in Birmingham. Everyone knew Paddy Hill. He was the guy who sang in the pubs and clubs, told jokes; the one who'd done any number of jobs, the one with the violent streak who'd have a go at anyone who called him for his Irishness. He had come over from Belfast at 15 to discover a city that carried job vacancies saying,"No paddies, no wogs". He had thought England would welcome him; a young lad whose father and brother had been British army stalwarts.
By the time he was set up for the pub bombings, he had 17 convictions, mainly for violence. "I have no scruples about violence. I used to carry blades, swords, hatchets." Hill's honesty verges on the psychopathic. He wants you to know every unpleasant trait. He tells me how he would go on the rampage in prison. "I didn't have any scruples about getting a blade or stabbing screws."
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