THE huge regret the McPhee family share is the 18 years of their lives they spent apart - time they know they can never get back.

While father George served a life sentence for a murder he knew he didn't commit, his young sons were growing up miles away in Willington, County Durham.

Life on the outside was hard enough for George, now 24, and Andrew, 23, despite their mother Pauline's attempts to keep life as normal as possible.

They got to know life on the inside as well, every couple of months they would take a bus or a train with Pauline to prison, following George as he was moved around the country to places such as Durham, where there was just a brief spell, and Full Sutton, near York, where be spent seven years alongside serial killer Dennis Nielsen and murderer Michael Sams.

Sharing the same name as his dad, young George was an obvious target for the cruel bullies who knew of his father's 'crime'.

At school he had to put up with taunts and name-calling from other kids and he hasn't forgotten the hurt, even though he shrugs it off as a bit of mickey taking.

But he never lost his faith in his father and never wished he hadn't shared his name.

He said: "I was proud of him then and I still am. I have always been proud to be called after him. I never wanted to change my name.

"My mother was always convinced he was innocent and so were we. We never doubted him.

"We knew he couldn't have done it. He is not that sort of man. Everybody who knew him back then says the same."

George is supporting his father's call for a public inquiry into the case. He said: "We lost 18 years with our dad and we will never get them back.

"Our mother had to be mother and father to us and it must have been hard."

George and his partner, Danielle Baird, are looking forward to their 11-month-old daughter Ellie's first Christmas.

He said: "The sad thing was we lost another baby, Gabrielle, three years ago when dad was in prison. He was devastated and all he wanted to do was to be with us to help.

"When he came out, the first time he came up here to see us he went to the grave in Bishop Auckland."

George senior didn't tell his sons when he was due to be freed in 2003, surprising them with a phone call.

His son said: "We went down the next day to see him. Things had changed so much while he was inside he had to get to know everything again. There weren't CDs or DVDs and everything cost so much more. Even the supermarkets were strange."

Pauline, who also has three daughters, spent time re-establishing her relationship with George before finally marrying him 18 months ago.

They had spent three years together when the boys were born, but were apart at the time of George's arrest in 1985.

George junior said: "They had been apart for so long they had to get to know each other again. They have taken things slowly.

"My mother has family up here and they come up and see us all. We all went out for a night and somebody came up and shook my dad's hand. It was great to have him back.

"But we'll never understand why this happened. Some of the evidence was never heard in court.

"His friend made a statement against him and so did another prisoner.

"There were some tyre tracks but they didn't fit his van so he couldn't have been where they said he was. It didn't make sense."

Mr McPhee said yesterday: "I feel extremely bitter. I didn't see my sons grow up. That has all gone and I can never get the time back.

"Pauline and the boys have stood by me and always have.

"The police wanted somebody for the murder and I fitted the bill. They stitched me up but the man in charge of case is dead.

"There's good and bad in all walks of life - there's good police and there's bad police. I just want to get on with my life and just try and pick up where I left off."