EX-soldier Stuart Ainsworth established his own supply of drugs to help him combat Gulf War Syndrome brought on by the horrors of war.

Blackburn magistrates heard the father-of-four was prescribed diazepam to help him cope but had bought stronger tranquillisers from a man in a pub.

The court was told he also smoked cannabis to try to block out the memories which still haunted him.

Ainsworth, 29, of Park Lea Road, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to possessing 993mg of cannabis and 95 diazepam tablets. He was given a 12-month conditional discharge with £75 costs.

Wendy Chappell, prosecuting, said the drugs were found when police stopped a car driven by Ainsworth. He said the tablets were diazepam prescribed by his doctor. When interviewed later he said the tablets prescribed by his doctor were only 5mg and he had bought the 10mg tablets from a man in a Blackburn pub. He said he had not realised it was an offence.

Aftab Bakhat, defending, said Ainsworth had been deployed in the Gulf.

"Having landed in Jordan he and his fellow soldiers played their part in the liberation of Kuwait.

"During the course of that campaign he saw dead and dismembered bodies and he felt that he had an awful lot to cope with. On leaving the Army he felt himself withdrawn and anxious, suffering from insomnia and distress and he just was not able to rationalise all of this.

"He went off the rails after finding himself unable to cope with day-to-day tasks and unable to communicate.

"The tablets prescribed were helpful but did not go the whole hog and he took it upon himself to increase the amount of medication he was taking."

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "We do acknowledge that some members of the Armed Forces may be subjected to trauma and suffer as a result. We have systems in place to cope with this."