"NICKY went out in the morning. I knew he was going out because I had to get up for Elliot (Kim's youngest son) for school and Nicky was up as well, which was a bit unusual because it was early. I had to nip into town so I asked him if he wanted to come with me.

"He said yeah, and then he said no. So I left it at that really. There was nothing suspicious in that — he's so indecisive about things anyway.

"So I went to town and I came out of the card shop and I bumped into Nicky and he had the rucksack on his back — but that wasn't odd either because he always had the rucksack on his back.

"I said 'where are you going?' He said 'Oh, I'm going to meet my friend for a coffee' — which isn't out of the ordinary either because that's what he does, so I went home."

Kim took a quick nap, but a strange dream of marks over her arms and body, woke her suddenly. Even now she thinks it was a premonition.

"I got up and I thought I'd better phone Nicky. I was just about to phone him when I had a call from the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital. I didn't click right away.

"Then she said 'I'm a doctor, I've got your son.' I just thought 'Oh my God'. I thought he had had a panic attack and fainted, because he was having a lot of blackouts.

"She said: 'Nicky's been seriously burnt by an explosive device.'

"I thought 'Oh my God, it's a firework'. I didn't know what to think.

"I said 'I'll get there as soon as I can'."

But worse than hearing that Nicky's burns could see him transferred to Bristol's Frenchay Hospital, was a policeman who came on the line to order Kim to stay put, as Nicky was actually under police guard.

From 2pm to 6pm Kim paced her home, waiting for the knock on the door, her fears and confusion growing.

"I wanted to know how my son was doing and no-one was telling me anything. No matter how old your kids are, if you're told they're injured you want to be with them. I was finding it very hard to not be allowed to see him because I would have been up there in a shot. I just wanted to get to him. I knew he was going to need me."

Turning on the news, Kim stood dumbfounded at the reports about the Giraffe cafe in Exeter. "They were saying about a bomb. When you think of bombs you think of the black round ones on cartoons. I didn't know about liquid bombs until a while after.

"I just thought 'no way, not Nicky — not Nicky making a bomb.' I thought he's gone somewhere and someone's given that to him.

"I had questions going over and over in my head. I phoned the hospital again and said 'I'm still waiting for the police and how's my son'. They said 'Haven't they been there yet?' and that they'd get onto it."

Just 20 minutes later, Kim was confronted by armed police at her front door.

"I just thought the police were going to come in and search my home but let me stay there. I had no idea. It was just crazy — guns at me, at my front door.

"I was stood there waiting for them with the door open, telling them 'Come in, I've locked the dog away, come in.'

"They were there with guns going 'No, get out — you, get out'.

"I don't know if I was dragged. I went down the stairs with a local policeman.

"He took me down to his car, but I think my legs were going and whether he was pulling me up or carrying me along, I don't remember.

"Elliot had seen it all. He was outside playing when all these police jumped out of the vans with guns. He saw me being taken off and he didn't have a clue. I hadn't told him anything. I didn't understand what was going on myself.

"He was 10 and he was screaming and crying."

Kim and Elliot were then taken out of the city to an undisclosed location, quickly joined by her own mother and father.

"I can remember I had all the police with me. The ones brought in who are now my liaison officers.

"I just couldn't get my head around it, any of it at all, none of it.

"I just wanted to die — I did. I just wanted to die that night. And the next night.

"Everything was going over and over in my head – all of it — what Nicky had done, what had happened to him.

"I didn't sleep that night. I was kept in a hotel watching the news channels. I knew there had been an explosion in Exeter and I knew Nicky had been arrested for it.

"But it was like 'Well, Nicky couldn't have made that. Someone must have given it to him.'

"I was worried about him because that night he had an operation on his eye and the following day he had an operation on his arm.

"I had my mum and dad at the hotel and I was thinking what they were going through. They're getting on, it was awful."

Reliving those moments, picturing her son under armed guard, trying to make sense of it all, Kim still breaks down in tears.

Though she frequently states she has to be strong for her family, there is little doubt she is heartbroken at what Nicky did and what will happen to him.

Between her gulping sobs, she recalls: "And I knew it shouldn't be happening. Even today I can't make sense of it all.

"I look at Nicky's photo and I just think 'Oh, why? Why?' I don't think I'll ever make sense of any of this.

"I look at my son and I know people are reading the paper and what he's done. They may think he deserves to be in prison, but he doesn't. He needs help. If you know him, then you know it just shouldn't have been, shouldn't have been Nicky. But because of his vulnerability he's done this.

"But anyone who knows Nicky — I sit there, looking at his photo ... oh Nicky, you're so silly to yourself what you've done."

With effort, Kim regains her composure, trying to look towards a more hopeful future.

"Now I worry about the sentence he's going to get, where the sentence is going to be, when he gets released, how old will he be, what sort of life will he have for himself then because this is what he's got to carry for the rest of his life now.

"Even though he knows he's caused upset I don't think he understands the scale of chaos he caused in two cities. He knows we've been upset but we've tried to be strong for him now. We don't want to make him more anxious or put any more worry on him.

"There's times I feel so guilty. Is it my fault?

"Sometimes it's just loads of questions. It's just there – when you go to sleep, when you wake up. It's there throughout the day and after the last court case in November, they said six weeks more and I thought 'Oh God' because it makes me feel ill, that place, the Old Bailey and the whole surroundings, the judge and the atmosphere of the court and I look at my son and he just doesn't look like what he has done. He looks so innocent there.

"I mean, he's so polite in the court room. Last time he even said 'thank you' to the judge.

"When I come back from London I feel like I just want to shut myself away. I don't want to see or speak to anyone.

"But then I know I've got to pull myself together. It's like something's keeping me going, because sometimes I feel like ... well, sometimes it's just all too much.

"But I've got Elliot and I've still got Nicky and Luke (Kim's middle son) and I have to be strong for everyone."