An ex-serviceman charged with the killings of four members of his family made a desperate plea for help almost a decade ago, saying he was struggling to cope with his experiences in the Gulf War.

Troubled David Bradley walked into a police station in Newcastle upon Tyne and told officers he had shot his elderly aunt, uncle and two of their sons with a silenced pistol at the terrace home he shared with them.

The 40-year-old had told a local Gulf Veterans Association he was having nightmares, cold sweats and other problems after seeing four colleagues killed in a "friendly fire" incident in Iraq in 1991.

He kept in telephone contact for two years but never revealed any personal details and all contact with the help group stopped in 1999.

The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers was the British regiment that suffered the worst casualties in the Gulf War. On Sunday morning, Bradley walked into the local police station, less than a mile from the scene, carrying a holdall containing a handgun and silencer, pump-action shotgun and ammunition to tell officers about the bodies.

The bodies of retired builder Peter Purcell and his wife Josephine, both in their 70s, and their sons Keith, 44, and Glen, 42, were found in two downstairs rooms of the house.