Even now, he says, he could turn at any moment. "The only thing that frightens me is me. That's why I don't touch alcohol. I could use violence quite easy. If somebody starts getting on my face, I'm fucking right in. If I had a gun in my hand I'd shoot you. I don't give a fuck about going to jail. You could take me to jail today and throw away the key. And I wouldn't lose any sleep over it, providing I'm guilty."

And that's the point. I tell him he sounds far too untameable to be an IRA man. "I have not had anything to do with the IRA. Never. I'm Republican and I believe in a united Ireland, but that doesn't make me a fucking bomber. The cops told us, 'We know you're innocent, but we don't give a fuck who done it, we only want bodies.'"

Hill is occasionally terrifying, often tender and vulnerable. He returns to the story of his daughter. "She said, 'You spend half an hour with us and fuck off to your prison. Why?' And I sat down, I'm not ashamed, I broke my heart, I cried my eyes out in front of my kids. And I told them the reason I was going to see Jimmy Robinson was because in here [he holds his heart] I feel something for him, in here I feel fuck all for any of you, and that's the God's honest truth." He's almost crying again. "You know, I've probably spent half of my time out here wishing that I'd never come out of jail. I don't feel a part of it."

Last week he was reported as saying that it was time to put the past behind him. Is that possible, I ask? "I have never said that in my life," he screams. The veins are bulging in his neck again. "I keep telling people you can't put it behind you. And to hear all this old bollocks, 'Time is a wonderful healer', time doesn't heal fuck all. The only thing that time does, if you're strong enough, is helps you to cope with it a little bit better."

As for the compensation, he's still waiting for the offer. All he knows is that it will be less than £1m, and a good chunk of that will be made up of the interest accrued over the years. Would £1m satisfy him? "As far as I'm concerned, the Queen hasn't got enough money to compensate one of us, never mind the six of us. If I got £1m compensation plus the interest I wouldn't be screaming. I wouldn't be happy, but at least I'd accept it."

Actually, he says, money means nothing to him. Of the £300,000 he has received, he has spent more than £100,000 campaigning for miscarriages of justice. "That's why I'm on fucking £75 a week income support."

As for the first £50,000 each of the Birmingham Six received, he says they blew it when they came out of jail. "We were bringing our grandkids out and buying them stuff down Oxford Street, and all we were trying to do was buy love and affection. It doesn't work." next:..
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