Libya’s all-powerful leader for four decades spent his final weeks hiding in his home town of Sirte, alternating between rage and melancholy as his regime crumbled, his chief bodyguard has revealed.

A senior member of Muammar Gaddafi’s inner circle slipped into Niger along with three carloads of collaborators, an official said, but the toppled Libyan leader was not among them nor were any members of his immediate family.

A US man charged with aiding two people, including a British citizen, to commit suicide, was committing a crime – not playing a game – when he “hunted” vulnerable people on the internet, prosecutors claim.