Despite being free for the past decade, Raymond Gilmour has revealed he remains haunted by the horror of spending 21 years behind bars.

Gilmour, who is now in his mid-50s, said he is often unable to sleep – and, when he does, he suffers terrifying nightmares of being back in a cell.

He said: “I have dreams that take me back 20 years to being in prison.

“You wake up and you wonder where you are because, sometimes, the dreams are so intense that it takes a while to appreciate you’re not back there.

“That’s how much of an effect these years had.

“I always dream about the past. It’s very strange – my dreams never seem to be current. They are always old.”

The jury found Gilmour guilty of the murder of Pamela Hastie in Rannoch Woods, Johnstone, in 1982 by a narrow majority of two and he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

However, in 2007, he won an appeal against his conviction after it was revealed he was forced into confessing. 

Gilmour said everyone seemed surprised at the result. He, on the other hand, was left feeling nothing.

He added: “I think they were all shocked but I was just numb.

“You get a medical exam after your conviction to see if you’re fit and healthy to be put in a cell and, to show you how much of a shock it must’ve been for me, when the doctor was taking my blood pressure and my pulse, I thought it would be high. He said my pulse was 59. I had gone into shock mode.”

Gilmour admits he was hated and bullied by other inmates during his time behind bars.

He said: “Initially, other prisoners didn’t believe me. When I was in the Young Offenders Institution, I was hated.

“There was a gang that would pick on folk all the time and gain points for themselves from whoever they could do the most damage to.”

Gilmour received compensation after winning his appeal and has managed to rebuild his life – but believes he will always be damaged.

He said: “I have had some compensation but I don’t want to say how much. It doesn’t matter if it was 20p or £20million, it doesn’t replace 20 years.

“I can live on it. I’ve got a family, we can live on it.

“People might think it’s strange for me to say I’ve been lucky but, in certain ways, I have been. I was lucky certain people had the beliefs they had.

“If I hadn’t been sitting in a prison cell, I could’ve been sitting in a house on my own, not having kids to enjoy.

“But you’re damaged and you think ‘how does a damaged person help their kids to grow up?’”