TWO British aid workers from the North-East who had dedicated their lives to helping African children were gunned down by a terrorist group linked to al Qaida, an inquest was told yesterday.

Childhood sweethearts Dick and Enid Eyeington were watching television in their armchairs at their home in Somaliland when the terrorists, who wrongly believed they were trying to convert Africans to Christianity, fired shots from a AK-47 rifle

Mr Eyeington, 62, was shot four times in the head, chest and leg and his wife, 60, died from a single shot to the head, on October 20, 2003.

The violence at their home in a school compound in the village of Sheikh was so sudden Mr Eyeington still had the TV remote control in his hand, Westminster Coroner's Court, in London, was told.

The hearing heard that the couple, who were originally from County Durham, had lived in Africa since they married in 1963, working with disadvantaged African children in Tanzania, Swaziland and then Somaliland.

Mr Eyeington, who hailed from near Chester-le-Street, had become headteacher of Waterford School, in Swaziland, helping African children. Mrs Eyeington worked trying to help people with HIV. Despite concerns from their family, the couple took up an offer to set up a school at Sheikh for the charity SOS Village, in 2002.

The couple's solicitor, daughter Louise Eyeington, 37, told the hearing her Sunderland-supporting father had run football clubs in Africa.

She said: "Dick and Enid dedicated most of their lives to the education of underprivileged African children. They had great courage, commitment and honesty and the world is a poorer place without them.''

Detective Chief Inspector Jill Bailey told the hearing that last month four men, including the man who fired the rifle, Mohammed Ali Essa, were convicted of the murder and were sentenced to death by firing squad.

She said the men had been part of a terrorist cell called El Itihad, which had killed an Italian nun in Somalia just a week before the deaths of the Eyeingtons.

It was possible that Essa's brother-in-law Adan Ayro, who owned the house Essa was captured in, had links to al Qaida. A plan to blow up an Ethiopian airliner and bomb-making manuals were uncovered during the probe.

Westminster coroner Dr Paul Knapman recorded a verdict that the couple were unlawfully killed.