The son of the last man executed in Britain has called for the death penalty to be brought back in Britain.
Mark Price was three years old when his father Peter Allen, 21, and accomplice Gwynne Evans, 26, were hanged in August 1964 for murdering John West.
The youngster was in the getaway car with his killer father when he battered and then stabbed the van driver when he refused to give him money.
The jury convicted Allen and Evans of murder and they were hanged a year before the death penalty was suspended - four years later it was abolished for good.
But more than 50 years later, Mark, 54, has said although it was wrong to kill his father, some people including terrorists and extremistsm deserved to be executed for their crimes.
The married father-of-four said: "My mother brought me up to know that violence is never the answer.
"But I actually believe in the death penalty and that should be brought back in certain circumstances where there is irrevocable proof.
"For example the Yorkshire Ripper - what is that man doing languishing in jail? Ian Brady?
"You've got the guy who killed the squaddie Lee Rigby in London in front of everybody hacked the guy to death - why are they languishing in prison?
"There's no question of guilt there. They took a life for no other reason than religion. That's no reason to take a life.
"There are no real reasons to take a life but I believe if you take a life in those circumstances, you forfeit your own.
"Ian Huntley, Dennis Nilsen, The Yorkshire Ripper - those are people with the sole intent to kill and I do think that they should have their lives taken in return."
Former soldier Mark, who lives in the north-west of England, admits it is bizarre that he does passionately believe in bringing back executions.
He added: "That's how I feel but if you had asked me 20 years ago I would have said no, don't bring it back.
"But I'm a lot older now and when you see someone just murder someone for the hell of it and they go away and get their 25 years in jail.
"But then they do about 15 and they're let out of prison - what right do they have to a life?
"What's to say when they are released from prison they are not going to do it again?
"I believe the death penalty would make people think twice."
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In April 1964 Evans stole a Ford Prefect car and drove with Allen from Liverpool to Seaton, Cumbria, to ask van driver John West, 53 for money.
Allen took partner Mary, three year-old son Mark and his baby brother Richard along for the 146-mile ride.
But when West refused to hand over any cash, the two men attacked him in his home, bludgeoning him with an iron bar, stabbed him in the chest and left him in a pool of blood.
When the men were arrested, Mary was forced to be a key prosecution witness. As the jury could not decide who committed the fatal stabbing - both were convicted of murder.
At the time the campaign to abolish hanging was gathering pace and many death sentences were already being reprieved.
But despite pleas for clemency to the Home Secretary, their executions went ahead at 8am on August 13 1964 - Allen in Liverpool and Evans in Manchester.
On the night before Allen's execution, protesters lined the street outside Walton Prison in Liverpool calling for mercy while he saw his wife Mary for the last time.
Allen hurled himself furiously at the glass partition that separated them, breaking both the glass and his hand.
When he was led to the scaffold the next morning, it was still in a bandage.
A year later, in November 1965, Labour MP Sydney Silverman introduced a Private Member's Bill to suspend the death penalty, which was passed on a free vote in the House of Commons.
Mary sought comfort with Allen's best friend Billy Price and they married, leaving confused Mark to grow up thinking Billy was his dad.
But when he was 13 years-old he overheard other people talking about his dad being hanged and confronted his mother over the truth.
Last year he also found out that he was in the getaway car as a youngster when the actual murder took place.
Grandfather-of-two Mark said: "I found out in my early teens but that was it and not why - just that he was hanged.
"My mother unfortunately died quite young when she was 36 and never got to tell me.
"I found out my researching bits of information here and there but I still don't know the full story of my father.
"The law at the time was that it was capital crime, there was capital punishment so anybody involved would be hanged.
"The law was wrong but that's not to say the law was always wrong.
"Peter Allen is my father. Yes, he did something wrong and he was punished for it. But he's still my father."
But the niece of 19 year-old David Bentley, controversially hanged in December 1952 under old 'joint enterprise' laws, completely disagrees.
Bentley was executed in Wandsworth Prison for saying the words "let him have it", which led to police officer PC Sidney Miles being shot by accomplice Christopher Craig, 16.
Mr Bentley's conviction was was quashed in 1998, more than 40 years after his execution.
Maria Bentley-Dingwall, 54, said: "I'm absolutely against bringing back the death penalty.
"It's so complicated. The Lee Rigby case was awful but for them we would also be making them martyrs.
"If a jury knew there was a death penalty would they feel able to convict them - knowing he would be executed?"
