Survivor breaks silence on Dunblane horror 20 years after shooting
Aimie Adam, a survivor of the horrific Dunblane massacre, has told Good Morning Britain she "feels sorry" for mass murderer Thomas Hamilton.
Speaking emotionally about her ordeal for the first time on television, Ms Adam said she both hates and pities the gunman.
She said: "It's not normally how you would feel sorry for someone. I sort of feel bad for him that he felt his life was so terrible that he had to ruin other people's."
She added: "I hate him but he's gone and can't ruin any other lives and that's a good thing out of it. I can't let something like that beat me because if I did... I wouldn't be the person I am."
Ms Adam was shot twice during her PE lesson at Dunblane Primary School and was forced to crawl and hide in a cupboard while 16 of her classmates and her teacher were murdered.
She said she does not remember much of the day including the moment Hamilton walked into the gym hall and started opening fire.
She added: "I must have known that there was something wrong because I remember my right leg trailing behind me, so I kind of knew but I obviously didn't know that I had been shot because when you are five you don't really know what that means."
She still has the physical scars from the tragedy, which meant she had to undergo several surgeries, and has been left her with permanent nerve damage and no feeling in her right leg from the knee down.
She also bares the psychological trauma of losing her friends.
But she is determined to get on with her life and is currently studying mental health nursing, which she said is linked to the terrible events she witnessed 20 years ago.
"It's definitely one of the reasons why I did choose it...I always want to know the reason why people do these horrible things and what they were thinking," she said.