Murderer was heavy cannabis user

Crampton could not accept the relationship was over

Depressed Neil Crampton was a heavy cannabis user who never felt he fitted in.

His case mirrored that of quadruple killer David Bradley, then 41, who had wiped out his family a few miles away in another part of Newcastle just four months earlier.

Both men spent hours alone, brooding in a cannabis-induced stupor. Crampton, 36, would regularly smoke £50 worth of the drug a week.

Crampton had not smoked cannabis or taken other drugs immediately prior to his killing spree, but there were traces of it in his hair when samples were taken after his arrest.

More reclusive

His mother Ann gave evidence for the defence, portraying him as a loner who refused to eat with his parents as he stewed about his failed relationship with Ms Sobo.

At school he was an overweight underachiever with missing front teeth who tried to befriend older children.

The couple met when they did bar work at the Newcastle University Union in 1993, and soon after they lived together, having Abigail the following year.

He became a taxi driver, and for a while family life was good.

But the relationship was not smooth for long, and they split before Steven's birth in 2001.

Crampton stewed about his failed relationship with Ms Sobo

Crampton felt a failure, was £20,000 in debt and became depressed.

An only child who had left school without qualifications, he moved back in with his parents, now retired, and became more reclusive.

Despite money worries, he still found the cash to go travelling twice to South East Asia in the year before he murdered his family.

He was extremely jealous of his ex-lover and challenged her about seeing other men.

However, he was not averse to sleeping with prostitutes during his travels.

Dr Kim Fraser, a consultant forensic psychiatrist, interviewed Crampton after the killings.

He told the court Crampton was clear about his feelings for Ms Sobo.

He said: "I have never met anyone like her. It was my first true love. It seemed perfect.

"After the split, on one occasion he hired a black prostitute, but did not sleep with her, later admitting: 'All I wanted was to be cuddled."