A man has been jailed for eight years for trying to kill four children.

The accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to four counts of attempted murder.

This man cannot be identified to protect the children involved and for this reason, many of the details of what happened have to be excluded.

The court heard he tried to strangle the four children and left two of the younger ones for dead.

The two older children managed to resist his attack as the accused ran out of energy.

He then alerted a relative saying: "I've done something stupid".

In a victim impact statement, the children's mother said she will never forget receiving a horrible voicemail from one of her children screaming.

The accused, who pleaded guilty, had previously been diagnosed with moderate to severe depression with social anxiety.

The judge said there was a narcissistic element to the offences where the man had shown a complete lack of respect for the children's autonomy - believing they would be better off dead.

Other aggravating factors were the horrific nature of the attacks and the future effect on the children's lives, which is not possible to quantify.

The judge sentenced him to 12 years in prison with four suspended.