David Lucas, 58, runs his business making the execution equipment from his Eldon Farm base in Holywell Row.

And he admitted he sells the equipment, which also includes multi-hanging execution systems which can hang five to six people at once, all over the world, regardless of the particular country's human rights records.

"I'll sell them to whoever wants to buy them," he said.
The business is currently legal but new legislation due to come into force at the end of July will outlaw it.

Mr Lucas defended his trade which he felt was perfectly acceptable.

"I've got no problem with it," he said. "At the end of the day you've got people sitting in prisons all over the world who have murdered people and little kids."

Mr Lucas also said he thought public executions had a use in some countries: "Look at Iraq. When Saddam had that country it was under control. All right, it was barbaric but it was under control."

And when asked what he thought of innocent people being executed using his gallows he said: "They were in prison for a reason".

Mr Lucas has sold gallows for about 10 years but denied a claim that he had done business with Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe.

He said his oak framed gallows, which cost anything from £12,000 to £100,000, were not only used for executions. Some customers had bought them as lawn ornaments or conversation pieces.

He first got into the trade through his farming of elephant grass which he exported to African countries as animal feed.

The grass is farmed on fields owned by his business partner Brian Rutterford, who also owns the land near RAF Lakenheath where the bodies of murdered Soham schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were discovered.

Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said: "There have been gaping loopholes in the regulations concerning execution equipment for years.

"It makes a mockery of the UK's efforts to oppose the death penalty around the world if right under its nose a British company is sending hanging equipment abroad."