There was nothing mentally wrong with me. I’ll never know for certain why they chose me for the procedure
I was born in 1946, and grew up near Kirkstall in Leeds. My childhood was tough: my father was a welder and a bare-knuckle boxer, and my mother was an alcoholic who would sometimes lock me in the coalhouse overnight. I was a bit of a tearaway and would get into fights with other kids.
When I was 10, another lad and I ended up in court after messing about on a museum roof. My mother said she couldn’t look after me any more, and I was sent to Kneesworth Hall Approved School, a residential institution for boys who had committed offences or were beyond parental control, but were considered “highly intelligent”. I was later kicked out for misbehaving, after joyriding a tractor on to RAF land. I continued getting into scraps and ended up in Borstal at one point.