Two men accused of killing an undercover cop were fit, young men who decided to take the law into their own hands, a court hears.

A former NZ teacher survived being shot in the face during UK taxi driver Derrick Bird's murderous rampage.

The body of an 18-month-old toddler has been found as police also investigate the death of a woman believed to be the girl's mother.

"Rightly or wrongly, and we all think wrongly, Derrick thought his brother was out to get him," a friend of the Bird family says.

Derrick Bird, the gunman who shot dead 12 people in a rampage in Cumbria, killed 10 of his victims in less than an hour, UK police believe.

The father of slain Chinese teenager Kiko Jiayi Li is so distraught by his daughter's death that he has been unable to leave his hotel bed.

The third man charged in connection with the death of Chinese student Jiayi Li, whose body was found in her car on Wednesday, has appeared in court.

David Bird had no time to react to his brother's final visit before he was shot in the head at pointblank range.

A 30-year-old man murdered "an elderly and defenceless woman in her own home for the relatively paltry sum of $2000," the High Court heard today.

Whitehaven, England - A friend of one of the shooting spree's victims broke down in tears as she knelt alone to lay flowers at the spot where he died.

The 19-year-old west Auckland student is expected to face Auckland District Court today charged with being an accessory after the fact of murder.

A family row over a disputed will may have triggered the massacre of 12 people, with the British shooter's twin brother and family solicitor among the victims.

John Skinner says the only thing he can remember from the confrontation with a slain officer is firing a single shot before his memory went "blank".

What compelled an outwardly normal man who was polite and friendly to those in his community to unleash one of Britain's deadliest killing sprees?