"They should be shot," stormed licensee Ron Bannister. "They should be blown off this Earth. Just got rid of. We don't want scum like them in society. We want it cleaned up, and the quicker someone does, the better."

His rage was understandable.

The tormented publican, his wife and a live-in barmaid at the popular Seaweed Inn in Weston, Southampton had been tied up and robbed by a sadistic gang who threatened to ignite fuel poured over them. The recurring nightmare was partly responsible for the couple's decision to escape the horror scene for a new life in Somerset with their four-year-old son, George.

"We have become increasingly disenchanted by the trade and I hope by moving to a cottage in the West Country we can put some of the trauma of that night behind us," explained the 45-year-old tenant who told the Echo they would never forget the night of terror they and barmaid Yvonne Cameron had endured when evil burglars burst into their premises and stole £8,300 in cash, jewellery and cigarettes.

"How can anyone forget the terrifying experience of someone pouring gin over your body, making it out to be petrol, and threatening to set it alight? We have all been badly affected. What we went through I would not wish even on my worst enemy. The experience was that bad."

The trauma had brought on depression and an inability to sleep.

"Once I slept like magic for eight hours. Now it's nothing for me to sit up all night, be downstairs at 3am and be waiting for someone to come crashing through the windows and God help anyone who would."

He said his young son now had to sleep with him and his 35-year-old wife, Sara. "George is very well collected but he will no longer go into his room at night to collect his quilt or get his toys. From the word go, he used to sleep on his own. Now he has to go to sleep with us."

Jurors at the city crown court heard how three masked men had raided the pub in the early hours on November 24, 1986, after smashing the bedroom window of the couple's son and tied them up. Two were armed with knives and third possessed a wooden stick.

"Within minutes, two men were in their bedroom, one on either side of the bed," said prosecutor David Owen Thomas QC. "One held a stick, the other a knife. Mr Bannister was hit across the head and face as they screamed at the couple for money."

Cameron had a knife put to her neck as she slept in another room. "The place was turned upside."

The three adults were forced to lie on the publicans' bed before Mrs Bannister was taken downstairs to open the safe and forced to empty her handbag. She was then taken back to the bedroom while the trio scoured the premises. Her husband told them there was no more left but they found another £2,000 wrapped in a plastic bag.

One of the raiders then turned on him, yelling: "You f...... liar."

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The robbers still demanded more cash, threatening to hurt Cameron if they did not say where it was. The two women were then covered in bedclothes and liquid was poured on them by one of the gang who forcibly told them if they didn't say where more goods could be found, they would be set alight.

But the trio then fled, warning their terrified victims if they raised the alarm in the next 30 minutes, they would be shot.

The raiders were arrested two months later, and Mrs Bannister described how she recognised one of them at an identity parade. "I was looking at his eyes. They were frightening, sadistic and evil eyes."

One man from Liverpool, who pleaded guilty, received eight years. Two convicted local men were jailed for 12 and 11 years respectively.