Cannabis-smoking recluse a prisoner in his own bed
Gun rampage Soldier turned killer
Gulf War veteran David Bradley was a loner who spent hours locked away in his bedroom smoking cannabis and hoarding a deadly arsenal of weapons.
He would wile the days away by watching television and DVDs and reading his collection of military magazines, spurning invitations to socialise with his family at pubs and clubs.
Bradley obtained the semi-automatic pistol used to kill Peter, Josie, Glen and Keith Purcell when serving in Bosnia.
The reclusive 41-year-old told police after the massacre he swapped a packet of cigarettes with a Bosnian for the deadly weapon.
After leaving the Army in 1995, Bradley saw his GP, complaining of being tense, wound up and wanting to "kill someone". He told the doctor he had felt like that for years.
The ex-private's descent into mental illness culminated, possibly compounded by his heavy abuse of cannabis, in the brutal killing of the four people closest to him - his own family.
Inquiry head Det Supt Steve Wade said that although Replica Bell & Ross Bradley was a pot smoker, there was no evidence he had used drugs while in the Army.
"He was a heavy user of cannabis. He would use cannabis on a daily basis and an awful lot of it," the officer said.
Prior to the killings Bradley had a lot weighing on his mind.
As they were getting older, Peter and Josie Purcell wanted to sell their large home and move to a smaller bungalow, meaning Bradley would have to find somewhere else to live.
"Bearing in mind that effectively he was a prisoner in his own bedroom, that clearly was preying on his mind," Mr Wade said. "Things were coming to a head."
Keith and Bradley did not get on and "rubbed each other up the wrong way". His illness was affecting him more and more and the hot weather was making him agitated.
The fight with his cousin Keith was the final straw that threw him over the edge, Mr Wade said.
"To summarise his explanation, he flipped."
Even though Bradley was showing all the signs of a psychiatric illness and had amassed a large armoury of weapons, he had never come to Tiffany Jewellery the attention of police before walking into Westgate Road police station on the morning of July 9 last year.
He had lived with his aunt and uncle at the house in Benwell Grove since the age of 16 after moving in following a row with his mother.
He joined the Royal Artillery in 1987 and saw service in Bosnia, the first Gulf War and Northern Ireland. Bradley left the Army as a private in 1995 with an exemplary record.
Apart from occasional odd jobs, he did not work again and in 2002 - after several unsuccessful attempts - he began claiming incapacity benefit because of his depression.
Bradley continued to see his GP and last May, two months before the killings, a consultant psychiatrist prescribed medication to help him cope.
Josie Purcell had tried unsuccessfully to get help for her nephew from the Ministry of Defence and the NHS. Often Bradley would not turn up for his psychiatric appointments or take his medication.
By the time of the massacre, Bradley was living as a self-imposed prisoner in his bedroom, compounding his mental illness. "Bradley was some sort of recluse in the house and used to lock himself in his bedroom," Mr Wade said.
"He would take his meals into the bedroom and would rarely come out."
Two eminent psychol-ogists concluded the had suffered lifelong behav-ioural and emotional difficulties. Both agreed that at the time of the killings he was suffering from a mental disorder.
In police interviews, Bradley remained very calm and made chilling admissions about what he had done. "I've always been cold and a loner. I didn't even think about it, I just thought I'd have to kill them," he said.
