I do not regret any fatalities that have occurred Michael Stone

Dressed in black and sporting his trademark ponytail he was greeted by about 50 supporters outside the jail at 1045 BST before heading for east Belfast, where he grew up.

In a candid interview at the Avenue One pub Stone said: "Today is a day of celebration for my friends, myself and my family."

"But I recognise that there are those in the nationalist-republican community who view my release with sadness and anger, just as the release of the republican prisoners on Friday will also anger the loyalist-unionist community."

Television cameras caught Stone launching a gun and grenade attack at the IRA funeral of the two men and one woman shot dead by the SAS on Gibraltar in March 1988.

As well as the three men killed and 60 people injured during his lone assault on the Milltown Cemetery, he also killed another three Catholics between 1984 and 1987.

But although he had welcomed the ceasefire Stone will not apologise for his past.

"If I was to say sorry, I believe it would fall on deaf ears. I would be called a hypocrite. Those operations were military operations. I do not regret any fatalities that have occurred," he explained.

Stone has nine children from two failed marriages and three grandchildren and hopes to settle in an affluent area of east Belfast with his fianc�e Suzanne Cooper.

Speaking about his future, Stone laughed off the idea of any involvement in politics, but looks forward to work in the community, like many other former paramilitary prisoners.

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