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An inquest in Wiltshire has heard how a father with a history of violence drugged and then killed his two sons before killing himself to avoid a custody battle with his former partner.

In September 2012 Graham Anderson, 36, was found hanged in his bedroom near the bodies of his two children Jack, 11, and Bryn, aged three.

A neighbour had overheard a violent 10-minute struggle at the time the children had been killed. It is thought the boys had been attacked and then smothered.

Former lorry driver Anderson had issues with alcohol and drugs and was also heavily in debt. He had been jailed in 2011 for violence and cocaine possession. His jail sentence was also for an assault on a man he thought was having a relationship with the mother of his children, Victoria Jones. Ms Jones has also alleged Anderson beat her during their relationship.

The couple were due in court on 6 September 2012 for a hearing over custody of their children, who had been staying with their father after a period with a foster family organised by social services at Hampshire County Council.

Anderson was awarded custody of the children after he was released from prison. The children’s mother is reported to have issues with alcohol use. Social workers were said to have visited the children regularly at Anderson’s home.

The boys’ maternal grandfather Nick Jones told the inquest that he felt Anderson had killed the children as an act of vengeance, because after 10 years of domestic violence, their mother had walked out on him and he was “losing control”.

The inquest heard that 10 days before the bodies were discovered Anderson had been prescribed a two-week course of sleeping tablets by his GP to help him cope with the stress of the custody battle. At post-mortem, the children were found to have evidence of sedatives in their system. The pathologist Dr Amanda Jeffery said smothering was the most likely cause of the boys’ deaths, but added there was insufficient evidence to support that conclusion. Evidence at the scene suggested a knife and a broom handle might also have been used as weapons by Anderson.

It is thought the children died on the evening of 29 August or early in the morning of 30 August 2012, after a neighbour was woken by noises and Jack shouting.

Coroner for Swindon and Wiltshire David Ridley ruled that Anderson had taken his own life and Jack and Bryn had been unlawfully killed.

A serious case review was commissioned after the children’s deaths but concluded that events which led to their deaths “could not have been predicted”.

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