Private Jake Kovco had a disturbing premonition of his own death during a gory dream just one month before he was shot in the head, an inquiry has heard.

Pte Kovco recorded graphic details of the dream in his personal diary, which was found among his belongings in the Baghdad barracks where he died on April 21 this year.

The diary excerpt was read out during the first public hearings by the board of inquiry investigating the Victorian soldier’s death and the bungled return of his body to Australia.

Pte Kovco’s widow Shelley and his parents Judy and Martin were shielded from the media by a screen as they sat in the inquiry’s public gallery to hear about the 26-year-old’s alarming dream.

Under an entry dated March 21, Pte Kovco wrote how he dreamt the previous night he shot himself in the head with his Browning 9mm pistol.

“I’m a bit worried it could be a premonition about a bullet hitting me in the head. F… I hope not,” he wrote.

But Pte Kovco stressed that while the dream had unnerved him, he had no intention of committing suicide.

“I’m very happy with my life. It just shook me up a bit,” he wrote.

“I haven’t felt like that since I went through a rough patch, very bloody rough, four years ago.

“I know it wasn’t about killing myself.”

Lawyers representing Pte Kovco and his parents tried to stop the details being read out to the inquiry.

However inquiry president, group captain Warren Cook, said the diary entry should be made public, noting that Pte Kovco’s widow had not opposed its release.

In his diary entry, read out by counsel assisting the inquiry Colonel Michael Griffin via a video link from Baghdad, Pte Kovco graphically described what being shot felt like in his dream.

He dreamt of sitting in the room he shared with two other soldiers in Baghdad and how “for some unknown reason” he pulled out his pistol and shot himself in the head.

“I have no idea why, but it seemed I wanted to see what it felt like,” he wrote.

“I didn’t die, but it felt like I did, but didn’t (if that makes sense?)”

Pte Kovco described how he heard the gun fire with a loud crack before the sound went dull as the bullet entered his head, causing blood to gush from his nose, ears and mouth.

“That’s when I woke bolt upright, very weird,” he wrote.

The inquiry also heard how Pte Kovco’s two roommates told their commanding officer they no idea why the gun went off despite being in the room at the time.

The three men had been singing along to pop music, reminiscing and using laptop computers when Pte Kovco’s gun suddenly discharged just 5cm away from his head around 4pm.

Pte Kovco’s pistol was in a holster slung on the bed post of his bunkbed, while he stood on the ground typing an email to his wife using a laptop perched on the top mattress.

The soldiers’ commanding officer, who can only be identified as Soldier 30, said the roommates were just one metre away from Pte Kovco when his pistol discharged.

“They both … stated to me at the same time; `How did it happen, we don’t understand, how did it happen’,” Soldier 30 said.

“One of the them said `I didn’t hear the weapon cock nor did I see the weapon in his hand.”

Colonel Griffin said while Pte Kovco had appeared to be “his usual happy self” on the day, he had not followed the army’s so-called buddy system rules which require soldiers to clear their weapons in pairs once they finish their daily duties.

The inquiry is expected to hear more evidence from Baghdad this week before adjourning until mid-July.

However, any evidence relating to security issues or personal matters regarding Pte Kovco will not be made public to anyone but the board of inquiry and the soldier’s family.