A TERRORIST was reported this week to have confessed to murdering a North-East couple in a war-ravaged African state.

Teachers Dick and Enid Eyeington were shot through the window of their flat, close to a school in Somaliland that they were trying to rebuild, in October 2003.

US anti-terrorist forces are understood to have helped authorities in neighbouring Ethiopia to capture the gunman. He has been handed over to investigators in the breakaway republic of Somaliland.

He has confessed to killing the couple, with two other men, one of whom has also been captured. The ringleader of the terror network has also been hunted down.

The arrest follows a year-long search, crossing two borders in east Africa, and involving a team of detectives from Scotland Yard.

Mr Eyeington, 62, originally from Chester-le-Street, was headteacher at the Sheikh Secondary School, 500 miles north of the Somalian capital, Mogadishu.

He and his wife, 61, who was originally from Fence Houses, Wearside, were shot as they watched television.

Abdirahman Karie, now headteacher at the school, said: "Two months ago, an assassin strongly believed to have killed Mr and Mrs Eyeington was handed over to the Somaliland police by Ethiopia.

"He confessed to committing the murders with two other men, one of whom is still missing."

He added: "The Somaliland government seems confident that the case will now be concluded very soon and that they have all the evidence needed for the final court judgement."

The son of a coal miner, Mr Eyeington grew up in Pelton Fell, Chester-le-Street, before attending grammar school and teacher training college.

He was close friends with Oscar-winning director Lord Attenborough, who described the headteacher as an inspirational figure.

A Foreign Office spokesman said it had received no official reports about the arrests over the British killings.