Kidnapper killed 'lawfully' by police

A barman who kidnapped a woman neighbour using a replica pistol was lawfully killed by armed police officers, an inquest jury ruled yesterday.

John O'Brien, 37, of Holloway, north London, had pointed the "gun" at two officers of a firearms unit called to the siege in July last year.

The hearing, at St Pancras coroner's court, was told that O'Brien had been depressed when his wife left to return to her native Uruguay with their two-year-old son.