Ashman had denied attempting to kill the MP

He was from a respectable middle-class family - his father a war veteran who served in Saigon - and his life seemed the picture of happiness.

But a series of personal disasters and eventual financial ruin triggered a mental disorder that was to turn the father-of-two into a killer.

In May 1990, Ashman and his then wife Beryl bought a six-bedroomed mansion in the affluent spa town of Cheltenham and set about renovating it before they and their daughters moved in two years later.

But buying the house, in London Road, sparked a downward spiral of debt and mental illness for Ashman.

'Conspiracy victim'

Less than a decade later - by now bankrupt, jobless, divorced and homeless - Ashman, then 50 and working as a part-time barman, hit back at the system he thought had robbed him of his job, home and family.

Ashman was obsessed with what he perceived to be his legal rights and believed there was a conspiracy against him.

His psychiatrist Dr Jacqueline Short said he suffered from delusions and a persecution complex, which led him to believe he was the victim of conspiracies.

His bugbears included Lloyds TSB, Cheltenham Borough Council and the chief constable of Gloucestershire Police and he used to seek help to rectify these "conspiracies" through his MP, Nigel Jones.

Ashman had shown before that he was volatile. In May 1992 he broke the ribs of council tax collector Ian Williams after being served a summons for non-payment.

Ironically, Ashman avoided being sent to jail after his MP, Mr Jones, wrote a reference in his defence saying the attack was out of character.

Deep in debt

This volatility showed again when a burglar broke into his home two years later.

Ashman pulled a penknife on the thief and threatened him, later appearing on the Kilroy television chat show urging others to take the law into their own hands.

The former drainage engineer's problems started when he lost his job with the Severn Trent water company in a dispute.

Within months of the family's final move into the renovated London Road house in 1992, he was deep in debt.

As things worsened, Lloyds TSB started repossession proceedings, several loans failed to materialise and his marriage ended in 1996, after 25 years.

Just before the incident, Ashman's sister died and he was involved in a road accident in which he injured his head.