FROM the moment renowned hangman Albert Pierrepoint entered the cell, to the end of William Watkins' life, was just 12 seconds.

The after-effect of the execution at Birmingham's Winson Green Prison lasted much longer. More than 50 years later, Watkins' life, trial and execution are carefully examined in a new book.

Author and solicitor John Mervyn Pugh, of Upton-upon-Severn, was uniquely placed to write Execution: One Man's Life and Death.

His father was the prosecuting solicitor in the Watkins case and a young Mr Pugh sat just a few yards from the defendant, learning the art of advocacy by sitting in on trials.

"He won't swing" was his father's verdict on Watkins' conviction for murder. It was a view that was almost universally shared.

Watkins had been convicted of killing his newborn child. He claimed that he panicked when confronted with a premature birth in his slum house at night in Birmingham. He said he accidentally drowned the baby while trying to wash the blood off in a bath.

Profoundly deaf, there are question marks over how much he heard during interrogation and trial. His statement to police was unsuccessfully challenged in court.

However, despite the entreaties of Watkins' defence barrister, William Fearnley-Whittingstall, the Home Secretary did not grant a reprieve. Mr Pugh's verdict on that decision was damning.

The execution took place on April 3, 1951.

Mr Pugh said: "I think I just went blank on that day and then I did my utmost to forget it."

In 1977, by chance he saw a man who was the spitting image of Watkins and it all came back.

The research he carried out was exhaustive, the new book is a much updated version of one published in 1980, augmented by information released from Home Office files.

Bizarrely, one of the files is still locked until 2049 and Mr Pugh's attempts to find out why have failed.

His research led him to meet Mr Pierrepoint, who demonstrated the layout of the execution chamber by moving Mr Pugh's lounge furniture around.

It was Mr Pugh's only experience of a capital case and he still retains an image of the prisoner.

"I can see him now, he was only 49 but he looked closer to 70," he said. "It was the deafness that finished him off, in court he hadn't got a clue what was going on."

Mr Pugh said Watkins would never have been hanged even as little as ten years later when the defence of diminished responsibility became available.

Execution: One Man's Life and Death is published by Waterside Press. For a copy, call 0845 2300 733 or visit www.watersidepress.co.uk.