The father of a six-year-old girl who had a gun pointed at her head in a burglary has walked out on his family.

Bryan Peters, aged 44, says the stress and trauma caused by the break-in at his former family home in Dursley Close, Blackheath, made him become verbally abusive towards his wife and daughter - and eventually led to him leaving them.

Three masked gunmen burst into the family's home on January 8 this year before beating Mr Peters and his wife, Maria, with a gun and pulling their daughter, Mazie-Anne, from her bed and dragging her downstairs by her hair.

The attackers then pointed a gun at the girl's head and held a knife to Mr Peters' throat while forcing his wife to open the house safe containing £2,000 which had been saved to buy a caravan.

Speaking after two of the gunmen were jailed for 12 years each, Mr Peters said: "We left the house the next day as we could not get the blood off the carpet and walls.

"From that moment on I totally blocked everyone out. I did not answer the phone and was verbally abusive to my wife and ended up leaving her."

He added: "For months my daughter wouldn't go near a set of stairs and so she and my wife moved into a bungalow. Stairs reminded her of being dragged down the stairs by the gunmen."

Mr Peters, who now lives in Essex while his wife and daughter live in a separate house nearby, had a nervous breakdown after the attack.

He was also left with shooting pains in his eyes and constant pain in his side where he was pistol-whipped and beaten by the attackers. He also suffers from insomnia.

He said: "We all (his family) get on much better now and I am starting to come to terms with it all. I have had a lot of counselling which has helped.

"Mazie-Anne is also under a psychologist and the police family liaison officer is always checking up on us."

Mr Peters says hearing his attackers have been jailed for the crime has helped his recovery and admits the attack could have ended more tragically.

He said: "When I heard they had been jailed - it was the most fantastic news I have ever heard.

"It meant I could start again and I am starting to treat my family the way they should be treated again."

He added: "Things could have been worse. At one point they (the attackers) started pulling belts from our coats which were hung up on the side.

"I think they were going to tie us up - I'm not sure exactly what their plan was - but it looked pretty horrific.

"I managed to get away from the hold they had me in and ran downstairs to hit the panic alarm at the front door.

"They then ran out of the house. I'm not sure what I was thinking but I tried to give chase before returning to the house."

Linton Bert, aged 20, of Brooklands Park, Greenwich, and 20-year-old Adebayo Balagun, of Ebdon Way, also in Greenwich, were each sentenced to 12 years in prison at Woolwich Crown Court on November 24.

They had been found guilty of aggravated burglary at the same court in October.

A third suspect who had been arrested in connection with the attack was released without charge.