"He's never shown any violent tendencies before, he's never been a bad person, he's a nice kid and literally wouldn't hurt a fly - he used to tell us not to use fly spray because he didn't want any flies to die."

Photographs on Mr Davey's Facebook page show the boy's bedroom at both his father's and mother's homes. The photo of the room at his father's shows a room decorated with camouflage netting and toy guns.

Mr Davey, from Havant in Hamsphire, added: "If I asked him to name the Prime Minister he'd be able to tell me but he wouldn't know any other politicians. I doubt he would even know who the President of the United States is.

"It will be an outside influence as to why he's done it, he's never been like that and it's not something he'd do off his own back. Maybe it was a cry for help. "He would never pull the trigger of the gun if it came to it."

Julie Debnam, 56, who lives in Dorking and whose son went to primary school with Sandford, told The Telegraph: “He was a very nice normal child growing up. He had a few issues, but in fact he was very intelligent. He didn’t have to try very hard in class, he just picked things up very quickly.