Two half brothers were executed at close range by a man with a "paranoid psychosis" who subsequently committed suicide, a coroner has ruled.

The body of Jeremy Earls, 34, was found in the back of his car parked in woods at Kelby, Lincolnshire on 8 August, 2001.

He had a single gunshot wound to the top of his head and an Israeli-made Uzi nine-millimetre gun was lying nearby.

Jeremy Earls killed himself

Three days earlier police had found the bodies of Andrew Walker, 26, and his half-brother Alex Woodcraft, 17, who had been shot dead at a flat in Lincoln.

On Thursday the inquest heard a tape in which Mr Earls had claimed there had been a conspiracy involving certain Lincolnshire police officers and businessmen and people were trying to kill him.

Lincolnshire Coroner Roger Atkinson recorded a verdict of unlawful killing on Mr Walker and Mr Woodcraft, saying Mr Earls had taken his own life after murdering the brothers.

The coroner considered an alternative scenario - that somebody had got hold of Earls' gun and keys to the flat in Lincoln and murdered all three people - but said he had dismissed this theory.

We hope that there are no similar cases of undetected, gun-obsessed paranoid psychotics out there

Victims' families

Mr Atkinson said the murder of the brothers was an "absolute tragedy".

A statement by the Walker and Woodcraft families said: "Bad luck brought Andrew into contact with Earls, whose paranoid psychosis had escaped detection by authorities.

"We hope that there are no similar cases of undetected, gun-obsessed paranoid psychotics out there.

"But if there are, we hope that the publicity generated from this case strengthens the resolve of the relatives or friends currently in fear, so that the authorities can act and another tragedy be avoided."

Mentally ill

Lincolnshire Police issued a statement describing the brothers' murders as callous and pointless.

The statement added: "The tape recording played at the inquest demonstrated that Jeremy Earls was mentally ill.

"None of the allegations he made was found to have any substance whatsoever."

Earlier, ballistics expert Malcolm Fletcher said the crime scene and the post-mortem results all pointed to Mr Earls' injury being self-inflicted.

Blood patterns

But Tim Walker, a solicitor representing Mr Earls' mother Louise Dytam, asked if there were any alternative possibilities.

Mr Fletcher said: "There would have to be a slight possibility of an alternative - that a second person fired the shot, leaning in through the driver's door and firing between the front and passenger seat and then placing the gun on the body."

But he said blood patterns on the gun made this highly unlikely.