Nordine Amrani, the gunman who killed himself after a fatal shooting spree in a crowded Belgian square, was an ex-convict with a passion for arms, afraid of being thrown behind bars again.

The 33-year-old Amrani was well known to police before he went on the rampage in the eastern Belgian city of Liege, opening fire on families shopping for Christmas and youths leaving end-of-year school exams.

“He was a delinquent who was in trouble throughout his life, up before children’s courts, petty courts, appeals courts,” said Cedric Visart de Bocarme, the prosecutor for the Liege region.

Born on November 15, 1978 in a Brussels suburb, Amrani was orphaned in childhood and was “very quickly left to fend for himself ”, said one of his lawyers Abdelhadi Amrani, who despite the surname is not a relative.

A welder by trade, Amrani ’s repeated brushes with the law included charges of drug dealing, petty theft, illegal arms possession, and rape in 2003. He served five-and-a-half years behind bars.

In 2007 detectives discovered an arsenal when raiding his home, finding 9,500 gun parts, including silencers and rifles, as well as 2,800 cannabis plants.

He is said to have been expert at dismantling, repairing and assembling all sorts of weapons but was never linked to any terrorist act or network.

Acquitted on the arms charges, Amrani was sentenced to 48 months in jail for drug offences in 2009 but paroled in October last year.

On leaving jail, Amrani seemed the epitome of the perfect parolee.

As a welder “he had hands of gold. He could pull apart a vehicle and put it together again practically with his eyes shut. He was a great mechanic,” said his former lawyer.

Respecting the terms of his conditional release by remaining in touch as required with parole officers, Amrani also found a partner and a home, registered for unemployment benefits, regularly had therapy with a psychologist and, more recently, signed up for a metal-workers training scheme.

“He liked arms and had a record but he was a very poised, very calm man,” said his namesake lawyer. “I would never have expected him to be behind the drama in Liege. He must have snapped,” he told RTBF television.

The lawyer said that once when visiting Amrani in prison he had admitted to being “desperate and at times having black thoughts”.