‘Well, now we both know where we stand don’t we?’ Briony nodded. ‘We do. I blame you for my Boysie, he followed you in everything. I’ll give you a last bit of advice, my son: keep your head down and do your bird. No more outbursts in court threatening all and sundry, it just makes you look a prat.’

Danny’s eyes were blazing. ‘You know it all, don’t you? You’re not sitting in the dock. You and Tommy walked out your nicks and now you’re coming on to me like some kind of saint!’

Briony leant across the table and said through gritted teeth, ‘I told you, Danny, we were the old style of villain. You and Boysie could never understand us. Shall I tell you something? In all honesty, I never really wanted any of it. None of it. But I made my bed, as me mother would say, and I think we can safely say I lay down in it. For over fifty years. You two never had to do what you did, you chose it. You decided to be what you are.’

Daniel’s face was still twisted. Getting up, he said: ‘I ain’t listening to this shite. I’m better off in me cell. It’s Saturday, and on Saturday we can listen to our radios and have a laze about. Come to think of it, that’s what we do most days. But you’d know all about that, wouldn’t you? So if you’ll excuse me? I have better things to do.’

Briony sat stone-faced as he went to a prison officer to be taken back to his wing. People were staring at them, their last exchange having been overheard. Standing up she walked with as much dignity as she could out of the visiting room.

She had done her best.

Mr Justice Martin Panterfield stared at the man in the dock before him. He wiped his mouth with a spotlessly clean handkerchief before delivering his judgment to the packed but hushed courtroom.

‘Mr Daniel O’Malley, you have been found guilty of a vicious murder. Never before have I listened to such grisly accounts of barbaric and unnecessary violence. You took a knife and cold-bloodedly executed David Mitchell in full view of a packed public house. You and your twin brother terrified the East End of London, and were involved with a number of illegal businesses. You were a wicked and callous murderer who thought you could do what you wanted. You are the frightening result of this so-called permissive society. I would be failing in my duty to the public if I did not impose the maximum penalty the law dictates.

‘I hereby sentence you to life imprisonment with a recommendation you serve at least thirty years. Have you anything to say?’