Pasquale di Filippo spent ten years in jail after admitting to four murders, but helped convict other mafia bosses and was granted a new identity on his release.

However, he said his 14-year-old daughter, who knew his real name but not the details of his past, was watching a TV show about the Sicilian mafia which accused him of having committed 20 murders.

She confronted her father in tears and then, di Filippo said, “shut herself in her room and has lived in there for six months, only coming out to go to school — she doesn’t speak to me or even look at me”.

Italian prosecutor Alfonso Sabella, who helped to create the show, has defended the allegation, The Times reports.

He said: “He did indeed kill about 20 people and one of the murders was more brutal than anything depicted in the show.

“I am also surprised his daughter knew nothing about his past life. There is quite a lot on Google if you look.”