Canada’s deadliest mass killer was an aggressive loan shark who seized people’s homes and was charged in 2001 with violently assaulting a minor, it has emerged.

The country’s shock at the murder of 22 people across rural Nova Scotia at the weekend deepened when the identity of the killer was revealed: a 51-year-old wealthy dental specialist who owned six properties and was on apparently good terms with his neighbours.

However, three days after he went on a 12-hour rampage, leaving 16 crime scenes and several devastated communities in his wake, a different picture of Gabriel Wortman has begun to emerge.

Wortman had a history of predatory lending and tried to force even relatives from their homes, according to public records. An uncle, Glynn Wortman, who