An 81-year-old man has committed suicide by shooting himself dead with a robot he built using plans downloaded from the internet.

The Gold Coast man, who lived by himself, left a suicide note detailing his plans and thoughts, including his struggling to come to terms with demands by relatives that he move out of his home and into care.

It also noted that he spent considerable time searching the internet for a way to kill himself, eventually downloading what he needed to build a complex machine that would remotely fire a gun.

He set the device in his driveway at about 7am yesterday, placed himself in front of it and set it in motion. He explained in the suicide note that he chose the driveway so that the tradesmen working next door would find his body.
The plan worked as the workmen heard the gunshots and ran to investigate. The machine was attached to a .22 semi-automatic pistol loaded with four bullets and was able to fire multiple shots into the man's head after he activated it.

Tags: suicide