If Simon Mann was a dog of war, by the time he emerged from the notorious Black beach prison in Equatorial Guinea this week he looked thoroughly de-fanged.

Gaunt, bespectacled and with his grey locks arranged in waves, the Eton-educated former SAS trooper apologised to his hosts for the role he played in a plot to overthrow the government of President Teodore Obiang Nguema in 2004, and thanked them politely for letting him go. He was released following a presidential pardon, 32 years before his sentence was due to end.