BRITAIN:A Gulf War veteran who suffered mental problems after leaving the British army yesterday admitted shooting dead four members of his family at close range with a handgun fitted with a silencer.
David Bradley (41) pleaded guilty to four counts of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility at Newcastle Crown Court.
The former soldier killed Peter Purcell and his wife Josephine, both aged 70, and their sons Keith (44) and Glen (41), at their home in Newcastle last July. They were his uncle, his aunt and two cousins and he had been living with them at the time of the shootings.
Bradley, who served in the first Gulf War, Bosnia and Northern Ireland, was arrested after walking into a police station carrying a pistol, shotgun and home-made bomb.
He denied a murder charge, but admitted manslaughter after psychiatrists ruled he was mentally ill at the time of the shootings. Bradley was reported to have suffered mood swings, nightmares and depression after leaving the army.
The Purcells' surviving children, Peter and Jacqueline, said the shootings had devastated the family. "To lose your mother and father and both brothers in such circumstances opens up a huge void, which can only be filled with sadness, sorrow, grief and anger," they said in a statement last year.