Amid tough questions from defence lawyers, Paul Adkins says he was worried photo would be shared around brigade

Bradley Manning's former supervisor decided not to forward to commanders an email from the army private in which Manning confided his confusion over his gender and attached a picture of himself dressed as a woman, because it might have been shared around the brigade.

Manning's court martial heard on Tuesday that the soldier's supervisors failed on numerous occasions to take action that could have prevented him from leaking a huge trove of state secrets to WikiLeaks. Manning was convicted last month and is now at a sentencing hearing.

The email, sent to master sergeant Paul Adkins on April 24 2010, had the subject line 'My Problem', and contained a photograph Manning had taken of himself in a wig and lipstick.

Asked on Tuesday by Manning's defence lawyers why he did not inform a more senior officer upon receipt of the email, Adkins said he was worried that would result in the image being "disseminated among brigade staff".

"And I really didn't think at the time that having a picture floating around of one of my soldiers in drag was in the best interests of the intel mission," he said.

"I thought at the time that it was something that was being handled by his therapists and, had I forwarded it [to commanders], I was concerned that the photo would be disseminated among the staff."

The email came during a period in which, Adkins admits, he was becoming increasingly concerned by Manning's mental health.

In one memo written to psychologists at the time, Adkins said Manning's health was a "constant source of concern".

Adkins, who was demoted to the position of sergeant first class for his failings in the Manning case, also spoke about an incident in which he found Manning curled up in a "foetal position" in a supply room, with a knife at his feet.

Details of the incidents emerged during a crucial point in the sentencing hearing at Manning's court martial at Fort Meade military base in Maryland. Manning's defence counsel, David Coombs, has so far called around a dozen of Manning's supervisors in an attempt to show that his client's welfare was neglected.

Coombs has sought to show how the US military missed repeated opportunities to removed Manning's security clearance, which enabled him to download more than 700,000 classified documents that he later passed to WikiLeaks. Manning is facing a possible jail term of up to 90 years when he is sentenced, probably next week.

Adkins was one of four supervising officers who gave evidence on Tuesday.

The email he received from Manning in which soldier questioned his gender, was shown to the court, but was not visible from the press room.

But a reporter who was in the court said the email began: "This is my problem". Manning went on to describe how this had caused "problems within my family. I thought a career in the military would get rid of it.

"But it's not going away – it's haunting me more and more as I get older. Now the consequences of it are dire, at a time when its [sic] causing me great pain in itself."

The attached photograph showed Manning in a blonde wig, apparently wearing make-up. It appeared to be a self-taken image, possibly shot in a car.

Adkins conceded that, when a captain saw the email months later after Manning's arrest, their conclusion was that he should have been immediately removed from the vault where classified information was handled, with his security clearance at least temporarily suspended.

Adkins accepted that whether Manning should stay in post should have been a "command decision", but said he did not know why he did not escalate the matter.

Asked by Coombs why he did not notify a senior commander about the email, Adkins said: "I felt throughout the deployment that Manning's presence as an analyst was of importance to the mission, and my intent was to make sure, if I could possibly do it, that he could maintain his functionality as an intelligence analyst."

Adkins wrote several memos to therapists and psychologists who were treating Manning, documenting issues of concern.

"In a perfect world, I think if I could have held him back to make sure he was getting behavioural healthcare on a consistent basis, I would have," he told the court martial.

Manning arrived in Iraq in October 2009.

Two months later, the court heard how he flipped a table and made towards a gun rack during a counseling session. Adkins removed the bolt from Manning's gun after the incident, saying he was not "100% sure of his stability" but again did not take action that could have lead to his security clearance being removed.

"I was under the impression that he was not going for a weapon but just something physical to break – that was my impression," Adkins said.

However, the court heard a different account from chief warrant officer Joshua Ehresman, who was in the room at the time. He said that Manning reacted badly to being criticised over his time management.

"He got angry, and he slammed his fist on the table. He grabbed on to the table and he put an arm under it, and lifted it over and dumped the computers onto the floor," he said.

"I felt that he was going toward the weapons rack and I felt that I needed to detain him. He was very visually distraught and he had already dumped a table filled with government computers, so you don't know what is going to happen, so I acted."

After the incident, Manning was left in his post, retaining the security clearance.

Manning is believed to have started downloading the classified documents from January 2010. .

Ehresman and another mid-ranking supervisor, chief warrant officer Kyle Balonek, both said they felt they were frozen out by Adkins, who took sole charge of supervising soldiers in their team. Balonek said that system of supervision insisted upon by Adkins was "dysfunctional".

Adkins, in his memo to the doctors treating Manning, said he believed Manning needed "extensive psychological therapy", but told the court he did not think he should be suspended from the team. "I felt that losing him would be a detriment to our intelligence mission," he said.

Adkins also concluded in his memo that Manning required "responsive psychiatric treatment" and should be given regular doses of medication consistent with having "acute post-traumatic stress disorder".

Asked by Coombs if he had any medical training, Adkins replied: "No, sir, I don't."

He added that he knew people who had suffered from PTSD. "Obviously I'm not a psychiatrist or a psychologist, but what I wanted to give the doctor, based on my limited knowledge, was a good handle for what I was observing," he said.

In a memo written a month before his arrest, Adkins observed Manning's "continued instances of mental instability" and said he was suffering from "frequent catatonic periods and claims of dissociation".

He said Manning's instability was "a constant source of concern because of its inherent fluid nature" and "symptomatic of deeper medical condition unknown at this time".

However, his decision not to taken more action, particularly his failure to alert more senior colleagues, was repeatedly questioned by Coombs.

A third memo, written by Atkins in early May, related the incident in which Manning was found in the supply room.

"He was seated on the floor with his knees tucked up," Adkins said. "I noticed he was clutching his head – I saw that he was in pain."

A knife with a 2 or 3in blade was by his feet and the words 'I want' had been carved into a chair. Manning was initially not responding to Adkins, but after an hour began to talk.

Adkins then ordered him to return to his computer to complete his work. Asked by Coombs why he was did not immediately refer Manning to receive mental health treatment, Adkins replied: "I believe he had missed some work recently, for some reason. There were tasks to do in regards to analysing the threat."

He added: "I wrongly assessed that he was stable enough to conduct his shift."

Hours later, Manning punched a female co-worker in the face. It was after this final incident that he was removed from post. He was arrested over the leaks at the end of the month.