Man tells police he killed his family

Detectives investigating the deaths of two children, their mother and her brother said a man had phoned police to tell them: "I've murdered my entire family".

Minutes later, officers made the grim discovery at a semi-detached house in Kenton, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where they found the bodies of Olufunke Sobo, 36 and her brother Yemi, 41. The "gruesome" scene also included the bodies of Ms Sobo's children Abigail Crampton, 12, and five-year-old Steven Crampton, who were dressed in night clothes.

Their father - a former taxi driver, Neil Crampton, 33 - has been arrested by detectives in connection with the murders. It is believed all four were knifed to death, although detectives have not revealed how they were killed other than they were the victims of a "sustained, violent attack".

The children's grandmother, Tunde Sobo, who also lived at the house, returned from a holiday to her native Nigeria yesterday to find her home sealed off with a police cordon. She was then told about the murders.

Police arrested Mr Crampton, who suffered from depression, outside his parents' home in the afternoon.