The US air force failed to report the accused Texas church shooter’s domestic violence conviction to the FBI as required by Pentagon rules, a move that would have prevented the attacker from buying a gun.

The lapse prompted the Pentagon to announce a review of whether the problem has gone undetected in other cases across the military.

Devin Patrick Kelley was convicted of assault against his wife and stepson in an air force court-martial in New Mexico in 2012 and served 12 months in confinement before being given a bad-conduct discharge in 2014.

He is the suspected gunman in the attack on Sunday in Sutherland Springs, Texas, in which 26 people were killed.

An air force record of the Kelley court-martial says he pleaded guilty to multiple specifications of assault, including striking his wife, choking her with his hands and kicking her.